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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47787	The temperate man, or, The right way of preserving life and health, together with soundness of the senses, judgment and memory unto extream old age in three treatises / the first written by the learned Leonardus Lessius, the second by Lodowich Cornaro, a noble gentleman of Venice, the third by a famous Italian; faithfully Englished.; Hygiasticon. English. 1678	Lessius, Leonardus, 1554-1623.; Cornarus, Ludwig.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633.; Ferrar, Nicholas, 1592-1637.	1678 (1678)	Wing L1181; ESTC R32465	69,139	222

and to the matter of fevers inasmuch as they are converted partly into cholerick and partly into phlegmatick juices and moistures Students therefore are to use these kind of meats but sparingly with a sufficient quantity of bread taken together with them For so the damage which they bring may be in great part avoided 17. Of the same nature likewise as experience shews are all those kind of meats which in the head breed cataracts clouds dizzinesses distillations and coughs and in the stomach breed crudities inflations gripings gnawings frettings and the like and in a word all those which any way breed damage to the constitution of the Body or impediment to the functions of the Mind For how sensless a thing is it to buy the vile and fading pleasures of Gluttony at the rate of so many inconveniences Undoubtedly a man cannot make plainer proof of his thraldom to gluttony than when he thus thrusts and pours in that which he knows is hurtful unto him only to content his licorish appetite Now when we say A man must warily abstain from these kinds of food it is not so to be understood as that a man may not for example eat a little of Colewort Onions Cheese Beans Pease and the like although they naturally breed melancholy choler slime and windiness but that he ought not to eat them in any notable quantity For these being but seldom used and in small quantities cannot hurt especially when they be pleasing to the appetite Nay it oft-times happens that those things which do hurt being taken in larger quantities do in lesser proportions benefit Nature 18. Amongst all these kind of meats there is none more fit for weakly and aged persons than Panada with which alone and now and then an egge or two a man may live very long and with great healthfulness as our Author testifieth Panada is the Italian name of that kind of pap or gruel which is made of bread and water or some flesh-broth boiled together The reasons why this sort of food is so excellent are because it is most light and easie of digestion being prepared by art so as it is very like to that Chylus which the stomach makes by the concoction of meats as also because it is most temperate in the qualities thereof And further it is little subject to putrefaction and corruption as many other sorts of meats be which do easily corrupt in the stomach Last of all it breeds abundance of good blood And if occasion need it may easily by supply of other ingredients be made more hot and nourishing So that worthily was it spoken by the wise man Ecclus. 29. The principal of mans life are bread and water By which words he would teach us that mans life is mainly supported and upheld by these two things and therefore they being the most fit and proper for the conservation of life the solicitous pursuit of costly sorts of flesh and fish serving only for enticement and nourishment of gluttony is altogether needless Plutarch in his book concerning the preservation of health doth not allow of Flesh for thus he writes Crudities are much to be feared upon eating of flesh Inasmuch as these sorts of food do at first very much oppress and afterwards leave behind them malignant reliques It were surely therefore best so to accustom the body that it should not require any flesh at all to feed on In regard that the Earth produceth abundantly not only those things which serve to nourishment but also that which may suffice to pleasure and delight A great number of which thou mayst feed upon without any manner of preparation and the other by compounding and mingling them in a thousand several ways may be easily made sweet and pleasant To this opinion of Plutarch many Physicians agree and experience the surest proof to go upon confirms it For there are many Nations which seldom eat Flesh but live chiefly on Rice and Fruits and yet notwithstanding they live very long and healthfully as the Japans the Chineses the Africans in sundry regions and the Turks The self-same is to be seen likewise amongst us in many husbandmen and others of mechanick trades who ordinarily feed on bread butter pottage pulse herbs cheese and the like eating flesh very rarely and yet they live long not only with health but with strength I say nothing of the Fathers in the desert and of all Monasteries of old 19. The sixth Rule for them who are careful of preserving health is That above all things they must beware of variety of meats and such as are curiously and daintily drest From this ground that most learned Physician Disarius in Macrobius lib. 7. Saturnal cap. 4. and Socrates give warning to eschew those meats and drinks which prolong the appetite beyond the satisfaction of Hunger and Thirst And indeed it is á common rule of all Physicians And the reason is because change and variety tolls on gluttony and stirs up the Appetite so that it never perswades it self to have enough By which means it comes to pass that the just Measure is enormously outshot and oft-times as much as Nature required is thus thrust in by licorishness Besides divers meats have different natures and several tempers and oft-times contrary whereby it comes to pass that some are sooner digested and others later and hereupon ensue marvellous crudities in the stomack and in truth a depravation of the whole digestion whereby are bred swellings gripings colicks obstructions pains in the Reins and the stone for by means of the excessive quantity and also of the diversity there are bred many crudities and much corruption in that Chylus or juice out of which the blood is to be made Whereupon Francis Valeriola a notable Physician disputing in the second book and 6. chap. of his common places of this matter saith This seems equally agreed upon by all Physicians that there is nothing more hurtful to mens health than variety and plenty of meats on the same table and long sitting at them You shall find much more excellently discoursed to this purpose in Mácrobius in the forecited place Xenophon in his First Book of the sayings and doings of Socrates writes that in his Diet was most spare and simple and such as there is no body but may easily provide himself as good as that which Socrates used it being of very little cost and charge Athenaus in his Second Book reports out of Theophrastus that there was one Phalinus who all his life long used no other meat or drink than milk alone And there he mentions sundry others who used plain and simple Diets Pliny in his Eleventh Book and 42. chap. writes that Zoroastres lived 20. years in the desert only feeding on Cheese which was so tempered that it was not empaired by age In a word both of old in all forepast ages and now amongst us they in every Nation live longest and most healthfully who use a simple spare

disorderly For if a friend who visits thee in thy sickness and only comforts and condoles doth perform an acceptable thing to thee how much more dearly should a Physician be esteemed who not only as a friend doth visit thee but help thee But that a man may preserve himself in health I advise that instead of a Physician a regular life is to be imbraced which as is manifest by experience is a natural Physick most agreeable to us and also doth preserve even ill tempers in good health and procure that they prolong their life even to a hundred years and more and that at length they shut up their days like a Lamp only by a pure consumption of the radical moisture without grief or perturbation of humors Many have thought that this could be done by Aurum potabile or the Philosophers-stone sought of many and found of few But surely there is no such matter if Temperance be wanting But sensual men as most are desiring to satisfie their Appetite and pamper their belly although they see themselves ill-handled by their intemperance yet shun a sober life because they say It is better to please the Appetite though they live Ten years less than otherwise they should do than always to live under bit and bridle But they consider not of how great moment Ten years are in mature age wherein wisdom and all kind of vertues is most vigorous which but in that age can hardly be perfected And that I may say nothing of other things are not almost all the learned books that we have written by their Authors in that age and those Ten years which they set at nought in regard of their belly Besides these Belly-gods say that an orderly life is so hard a thing that it cannot be kept To this I answer that Galen kept it and held it for the best Physick so did Plato also and Isocrates and Tully and many others of the ancient and in our age Paul the Third and Cardinal Bembo who therefore lived so long and among other Dukes Laudus and Donatus and many others of inferior condition not only in the city but also in villages and hamlets Wherefore since many have observed a regular life both of old times and later years it is no such thing which may not be performed especially since in observing it there needs not many and curious things but only that a man should begin and by little and little accustom himself unto it Neither doth it hinder that Plato says That they who are imployed in the common-wealth cannot live regularly because they must often endure heats and colds and winds and showers and divers labors which suit not with an orderly life For I answer that those inconveniences are of no great moment as I shewed before if a man be temperate in meat and drink which is both easie for common-weals-men and very convenient both that they may preserve themselves from diseases which hinder publick imployment as also that their mind in all things wherein they deal may be more lively and vigorous But some may say he which lives a regular life eating always light meats and in a little quantity what diet shall he use in diseases which being in health he hath anticapated I answer first Nature which endeavors to preserve a man as much as she can teacheth us how to govern our selves in sickness For suddenly it takes away our appetite so that we can eat but a very little wherewith she is very well contented So that a sick man whether he hath lived heretofore orderly or disorderly when he is sick ought not to eat but such meats as are agreeable to his disease and that in much smaller quantity than when he was well For if he should keep his former proportion Nature which is already burdened with a disease would be wholly oppressed Secondly I answer better That he which lives a temperate life cannot fall into diseases and but very seldom into indispositions Because Temperance takes away the causes of diseases and the cause being taken away there is no place for the effect Wherefore since an orderly life is so profitable so vertuous so decent and so holy it is worthy by all means to be imbraced especially since it is easie and most agreeable to the Nature of Man No man that follows it is bound to eat and drink so little as I No man is forbidden to eat fruit or fish which I eat not For I eat little because a little sufficeth my weak stomach and I abstain from fruit and fish and the like because they hurt me But they who find benefit in these meats may yea ought to use them yet all must needs take heed lest they take a greater quantity of any meat or drink though most agreeable to them then their stomach can easily digest So that he which is offended with no kind of meat and drink hath the quantity and not the quality for his rule which is very easie to be observed Let no man here object unto me That there are many who though they live disorderly yet continue in health to their lives end Because since this is at the best but uncertain dangerous and very rare the presuming upon it ought not to lead us to a disorderly life It is not the part of a wise man to expose himself to so many dangers of discases and death only upon a hope of an happy issue which yet befalls very few An old man of an ill constitution but living orderly is more sure of life than the most strong young man who lives disorderly But some too much given to Appetite object that a long life is no such desirable thing because that after one is once Sixty five years old all the time we live after is rather death than life But these err greatly as I will shew by my self recounting the delights and pleasures in this age of 83 which now I take and which are such as that men generally account me happy I am continually in health and I am so nimble that I can easily get on horseback without the advantage of the ground and sometimes I go up high stairs and hills on foot Then I am ever chearful merry and well-contented free from all troubles and troublesome thoughts in whose place joy and peace have taken up their standing in my heart I am not weary of life which I pass with great delight I confer often with worthy men excelling in wit learning behavior and other vertues When I cannot have their company I give my self to the reading of some learned book and afterwards to writing makinglit my aim in all things how I may help others to the furthest of my power All these things I do at my ease and at fit seasons and in mine own houses which besides that they are in the fairest place of this learned City of Padua are very beautiful and convenient above most in this age being so built by me according to the rules

2. de vitis Philosophorum 34. The third Commodity of a sober Diet is That although it doth not cure such diseases as are incurable in their own nature yet it doth so much mitigate and allay them as they are easily born and do not much hinder the functions of the mind This is seen by daily experience for many there be who have ulcers in their Lungs hardness of the Liver or Spleen the Stone in the Reins or in the bladder old dry Itches and inveterate distempers in their Bowels swellings in the Guts waterish Ruptures and divers other kinds of Burstnesses who yet notwithstanding by the help of good Diet only prolong their lives a great while and are alwaies chearful and expedite to the affairs and businesses of the mind For as these diseases are very much exasperated by over-eating so that they do very much afflict Nature and in a short space overthrow it so by a sober course of life they are marvellously allayed and mitigated insomuch as very little inconvenience is felt by them nor do they much shorten the ordinary race of mens lives CHAP. VII That it makes men to live long and in the end to die without pain 35. THe fourth Commodity is That it brings not only health but long life to the followers thereof and leads them on to extream old Age so that when they are to pass out of this world their departure is without any great pain or grief inasmuch as they die by a meer resolution Both these things are manifest in Reason and in Experience For as for old Age it is evident That holy men in the Deserts and Monasteries of old lived very long albeit they led most strict lives and almost utterly destitute of all bodily conveniences which thing ought chiefly to be attributed to their sober Diet. So Paul the first Hermite prolonged his life to almost 115 years of which he lived about a hundred in the desert maintaining himself the first Forty of them with a few Dates and a draught of water and the remainder with half a loaf of bread which a Raven daily brought him as S. Jerom writes in his Life S. Antony lived 105 years whereof Ninety he spent in the desert sustaining his body with bread and water only saving that at the very last he added a few herbs as Athanasius testifieth Paphnutius exceeded Ninety years eating bread only as is gathered out of Cassian Collat. 3. chap. 1. S. Hilarion although he was of a weak nature and alwaies intent upon divine affairs yet lived Eighty four years whereof he passed almost Seventy in the desert with wonderful abstinence and rigor in his diet and other ordering of his body as S. Jerom writes James the Hermite a Persian born lived partly in the desert and partly in a Monasterie 104 years upon a most spare diet as Theodorets Religious History in Julian makes mention And Julian himself surnamed Saba that is to say Old man refreshed himself only once a week contenting himself with barley-bread salt and water as Theodoret in the same place recounts Macarius whose Homilies are extant passed about Ninety years whereof he spent Threescore in the desert in continual fastings Arsenius the master of the Emperor Arcadius lived 120 years that is Sixty five in the world and the other Fifty five in the desert with admirable abstinence Simeon Stylites lived 109 years whereof he passed Eighty one on a Pillar and Ten in a Monastery But this mans abstinence and labors seem to exceed humane nature Romualdus an Italian lived 120 years whereof he spent a whole Hundred in Religion with exceeding abstinence and most strict courses Vdalricus the Paduan Bishop a man of wonderful abstinence lived 105 years as Paul Bernriedensis witnesseth in the Life of Gregory the Seventh which our Gretzer brought to light some few years ago Francis of Pole lived till he was above Ninety years old using marvellous abstinence for he made but one repast a day after sun-set and that of bread and water very seldom using any of those kinds of food which belong to Lent S. Martin lived Eighty six years S. Epiphanius almost a Hundred and fifteen S. Jerom about an Hundred S. Augustine Seventy six S. Remigius Seventy four in his Bishoprick Venerable Bede lived from Seven years old till he was Ninety two in a Religious Order It would be too long to recount all the Examples that might be brought out of Histories and the Lives of the Saints to the confirmation of this matter I omit very many in our times who by means of a sober course of Life and Diet have extended their lives with health until Eighty Ninety and Ninety five years space or upwards There are also Monasteries of women in which upon a most spare diet they live to Eighty or Ninety years so that those of Sixty and Seventy years old are scarce accounted amongst the Aged 36. Nor can it be well said That these whom we have recounted lived to so great ages by the supernatural gift of God and not by the power of Nature Inasmuch as this long life was not the reward of some few but of very many and almost of all those who followed that precise course of Sobriety and were not cut off by some outward chance or violence Wherefore S. John the Evangelist who alone amongst the Apostles escaped violent death lived Sixty eight years after the Ascention of our Lord so that it is very probable he arrived to the age of a Hundred years And S. Simeon was a Hundred and twenty years old when he was martyred S. Dennis the Areopagite lived till he was above an hundred years old S. James the younger saw Ninety six having continually attended prayer and fasting and alwaies abstained from flesh and wine 37. Besides this Priviledge belongs not only to Saints but also to others For the Brachmans amongst the Indians live exceeding long by reason of their spare diet And amongst the Tunks the Religious professors of their Mahometical superstition who are very much given to abstinence and austerity Josephus in his Second Book of the Wars of the Jews chap. 7. writes That the Essenes were men of long lives so that many of them lived till they were a Hundred years old through the simplicity of the diet which they used and their well-ordered course of living for there was nothing but bread and some one kind of gruel or pap set before them at their meals Democritus and Hippocrates prolonged their lives to a Hundred and five years Plato passed Eighty Last of all when the Scripture saith in Ecclus. 37. 30. He that is temperate adds to his life it speaks generally of all those that follow abstinence and not of Saints only Nevertheless I grant indeed That wicked men and in particular Homicides and Blasphemers do not for the most part live long albeit they be temperate in their diets for the divine vengeance persecuteth them And yet these commonly

done without obscuring or almost utterly dissolving the frame of the Discourse The names of Hermires and Monks are perhaps offensive to weak minds that have only heard of the late professors thereof and have not heard or do not believe the virtue and true holiness of those in the Primitiv times But since they are not brought in heree for proof of any controversal points but only as instances to confirm the virtue and power of Temperance for the conservation of Life and Health there is so little cause of scandal to the most scrupulous minded that can be as it must needs be interpreted desire of quarrel and contention in any that shall sound Alarm on this ground And for the surer binding of such itching singers if any such shall be to the Peace I have thought it not amiss to make use of the Decree of that Great Chancellor of Learning as well as of the Law the late Vicount St. Albans as I find it registred in his Book which he entitles The History of Life and Death Which serving not only to bear me out in this particular but summarily ratifying the whole business I have thought fit to prefix ●… a general Approbation sheltring my self thereby as upon a war an t under the great Seal of Learning and Ingenuity And so I come to the third Discourse which is added to the other as a banquet of Junkets after a solid Feost The Author thereof was an Italian of great reputation living in the same age which Cornarus did The change of the time and the diversity of our fashions hath necessarily caused some alterations and additions in the English translation to make it more Denizon like If it give any delight we have as much as we desire although there is no reason to exclude the hope of benefiting For however it seems to play yet in very truth it strikes home and pierceth to the quick Ridentem dicere verum Quid vetat Oft times lighter arguments effect what stronger and more serious cannot do and that is taken in good part by way of mirth which being done in earnest would by no means be brooked Thus good Reader thou hast as much as I conceive needful to be known touching my self or to be said touching the work As for the Practitioners they forbid any more to be spoken of them than this That as they find all the benefits which are promised by Cornarus and Lessius most true and real so by Gods mercy they find no difficulty at all in the observation of this course They are sufficient witnesses in their own affairs and I hold them to be faithful And therefore making no doubt of the truth of the latter part of their report as I can abundantly give testimony of the verity of the former I commend both to thy belief and consideration and so commit thee to Gods grace T. S. Decemb. 7 1633. Out of the History of Life and Death written by FRANCIS Lord VERULAM Vicount St. Albans and Lord Chancellor of England pag. 241. IT seems to be approved by experience that a slender Diet and well nigh Pythagorean or such as is answerable to the severest Rules of Monastical Life or to the institutions of Hermites who had Necessity and Scarceness for a Rule doth produce long life And to this course appertains drinking of water cold air slender food to wit of roots and fruits and poudred and pickled flesh and fish rather than that which is fresh and hot the wearing of hair-cloth often fastings frequent watchings and seldom enjoyment of sensual pleasures and the like For all these do diminish the spirits and reduce them to that quantity which sufficeth meerly to the services of life whereby the consumption of the Radical humour and Vital heat is abated But if the Diet be somewhat more choice than these rigours and mortifications allow yet if it be always equal and after one constant proportion it will afford the same benefit For we see it to be so in flames A flame that is somewhat greater if it be kept constant and without blazing consumes less of its nourishment then a lesser flame doth that is stirred up and down and sometimes augmented and otherwhiles abated Which was evidently demonstrated by the Regiment and Diet which the Venetian Cornarus used who eat and drank so many years by one just weight by which means he came to live above an hundred years continuing an able man both in strength and senses To the Reader upon this Books intent HEark hither Reader Wouldst thou see Nature her own Physician be Wouldst see a man all his own wealth His own musick his own health A man whose sober soul can tell How to wear her garments well Her garments that upon her sit As garments should do close and fit A well-cloth'd soul that 's not opprest Nor choakt with what she should be drest Whose soul 's sheath'd in a crystal shrine Through which all her bright features shine As when a piece of wanton lawn A thin aerial vail is drawn O're Beauties face seeming to hide More sweetly shows the blushing bride A soul whose intellectual beams No mists do mask no lazy steams A happy soul that all the way To heav'n rides in a summers day Wouldst see a man whose well-warm'd blood Bathes him in a genuine flood A man whose tuned humours be A set of rarest harmony Wouldst see blithe looks fresh cheeks beguile Age wouldst see December smile Wouldst see a nest of roses grow In a bed of reverend snow Warm thoughts free spirits flattering Winters self into a spring In some wouldst see a man that can Live to be old and still a man Whose latest and most leaden hours Fall with soft wings stuck with soft flowres And when life 's sweet fable ends His soul and body part like friends No quarrels murmures no delay A kiss a sigh and so away This rare one Reader wouldst thou see Heark hither and thy self be he R. Crashaw To the Translatour IF thy good work work good upon this nation Pray God reward thee with Enochs translation Upon the matter of the work TAke so much Rubarb learned Galen says Take so much Cassia so much Aloes So much of th' other Ana ' of such and such Give me this RECIPE take not too much WHat e're the Doctor gives he does put to it Fasting Take this and fast and it will do it See! without Fasting Physick can cure none But Fasting will cure almost all alone To the Translatour HOw 's this A book for Temperance that first page Will marr the sale on 't Our luxurious age Expects some new invention to devour Estates at mouthfuls swallow in an hour What was not scrap't in years had ye but hit On some such subject that had been most sit For these loose times when a strict sparing food More 's out of fashion than an old French hood But what alas must moderate temperance she Live in perpetual exile because we Turn such voluptuous

what abundance of inward consolations those men who addict themselves to sobriety may if so be they have any reasonable understanding in divine mysteries attend Divine Service and the hearing of Gods Word their private devotions and meditations and in sum all manner of spiritual exercises And this indeed was my principal aim in the writing of this Tractate this my chiefest wish and desire As for the benefit and help that it affords to Students of good learning and to all those whose imployments consist in affairs and businesses appertaining to the mind and understanding I say nothing at present purposing hereafter to speak more at large thereof Whether you take the matter therefore or the end this Treatise can no way misbeseem a Divine And so good Reader thou hast an account of my reasons in undertaking this business CHAP. II. What is meant by a Sober life and what is the fit measure of meat and drink TO come then to the thing it self I will first set down What we mean by a Sober life Secondly By what way and means we may come to the determination of the just measure that is to be observed in our life and diet And thirdly What the commodities and benefits thereof be 5. Touching the first point then We call that a Sober life or diet which sets stint not only in drink but also in meat so that a man must neither eat nor drink any more than the constitution of his body allows with reference to the services of his mind And this self-same we term an orderly regulate and temperate life or diet for all these phrases and names we shall make use of intending by them all one and the same thing The matter than about which this Diet or Temperance is mainly conversant is Meat and Driuk in which a constant measure is to be kept Notwithstanding it doth likewise reach unto the care and ordering of all other things such as are immoderate heat and cold overmuch labor and the like through the excess whereof there grows any inconvenience in bodily health or disturbance in the operations of the mind 6. Now this measure is not the same in respect of the quantity in all sorts of people but very different according to the diversity of complexions in sundry persons and of youth and strength in the self-same body For one kind of proportion belongs to Youth when it is in its flower another to Consistency a third to Old age The Sickly and the Whole have likewise their several measures as also the Phlegmatick and the Cholerick In regard that in these several constitutions the nature and temper of the stomach is very different Now the Measure of the food ought to be exactly proportionable as much as possibly may be to the quality and condition of the stomach And that Measure is exactly proportionable which the stomach hath such power and mastery over as it can perfectly concoct and digest in the midst of any employments either of mind or body and which withal sufficeth to the due nourishment of the body I say In the midst of any employments of mind or body c. In regard that a greater measure is requisite to him that is occupied in bodily labor and continually exercising of the faculties of the body than to him that is altogether in studies meditation prayer or other like works and exercises of the mind Inasmuch as the exercises and imployments of the mind do very much hinder and disturb the concoction and that either because in calling up the whole force of the soul they do as it were abate and suspend the power and actions of the inferior faculties as experience shews for when we are very intent on study or prayers we neither hear clock nor take notice of any thing that comes before our eyes or other senses or else because they do withdraw not only the animal but the vital and natural spirits themselves from their proper services And hence it comes that for the most part twice as little food serves their turn who are continually imployed in study and affairs of the mind as is necessary for them that apply themselves to bodily exercises although equal age and temper might otherwise perhaps require an equality in both their diets 7. The difficulty then lies in finding out this measure Which S. Austine of old well observed in his fourth Book against Julian and in the fourteenth Chapter writing thus Now when we come to the putting in●ure of that necessary pleasure with which we refresh our bodies who is able to declare in words how it suffers us not to know the measure of necessity but if there be any of those things that yield delight before us it by their means steals a way and hides and leaps over the bounds and limits of procuring health whilest we cannot think that to be sufficient which is indeed sufficient being willingly led on by the provocation thereof fancying our selves to be about the business of Health when indeed we are about the service of Pleasure so that Lust knows not where Necessity ends In these words he refers the ground of this difficulty to Pleasure which blinds us that we cannot discern when we are come to the due measure we ought to hold but hides the bound-marks thereof to draw us past them and perswades us that we do but make provision for Health when in very truth we canvass for Pleasure Concerning the discovery of this measure therefore are we to treat in the second place producing Rules whereby it may be clearly and certainly found out 8. But here perhaps some will object That in Monasteries and other regular Societies such as are Colledges in the Universities c. no man need trouble himself touching this measure inasmuch as either the statutes of the Societies or the discreet orders of Superiors have set down the just measure that is to be held appointing according to the several seasons of the year such and such portions of flesh egges fish roots rice butter cheese fruits and broths and such quantities of wine and bear as are fit all of them being proportioned out by weight and measure so that we may boldly say they take our allowance in these things without danger of excess These men will by no means believe that the catarrhs coughs head-aches pains of the stomach fevers and other the like infirmities whereinto they often fall should proceed from the excess of their food but lay the fault upon winds ill airs watchings too much pains-taking and other the like outward causes But questionless they are deceived in this opinion inasmuch as it cannot possibly be that any one certain measure should be found proportionable to so many different sorts of complexions and stomachs as use to be in such kind of Societies so that what is but reasonable to a young and strong body is more than twice or thrice too much for an old or infirm person as Thomas following Aristotle doth