It takes a great deal out of a man's life, and gives him nothing worth having till he has ceased to enjoy it." Another of his aphorisms was this, "A fresh mind keeps the body fresh.

Take in the ideas of the day, drain off those of yesterday.

As to the morrow, time enough to consider it when it becomes to-day." Preserving himself by attention to these rules, Mr.Mivers appeared at Exmundham _totus, teres_, but not _rotundus_,--a man of middle height, slender, upright, with well-cut, small, slight features, thin lips, enclosing an excellent set of teeth, even, white, and not indebted to the dentist.

For the sake of those teeth he shunned acid wines, especially hock in all its varieties, culinary sweets, and hot drinks.
He drank even his tea cold.
"There are," he said, "two things in life that a sage must preserve at every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth.
Some evils admit of consolations: there are no comforters for dyspepsia and toothache." A man of letters, but a man of the world, he had so cultivated his mind as both that he was feared as the one and liked as the other.

As a man of letters he despised the world; as a man of the world he despised letters.