Certain old men prefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath
and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh.
They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health
and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because
of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons
doing this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.
