first spring and rising of the Sun every thing rejoyeth and becomes very flagrant by vertue of the sweet influences of their celestial Body and the power of the Earth 6thly In this Season viz. from Iune to the last of October most sorts of Cattel breed many Diseases first from the heat and gross humid Air which in this Season is more thick sulpherous the pleasant Influences and Spirits of the Air are dull and thick which causes a fainty Indisposition to possess the Bodies and Spirits of most Creatures Men themselves can witness the Truth of this likewise the foods of most Creatures is Grass which is of a phlegmatick Nature generates not only an unfirm Nourishment but fills the Body full of evil Juces for this cause it will not take Salt as at other times of the Year In this Season the weather being hot the Spirits of most Creatures are quickly evaporated by driving and other accidents which most Beasts are subject to especially such as come from remote Parts to great Cities besides it is the time of their uncleanness therefore it was not without great reason and Wisdom that the Antients commanded that Flesh should be eaten sparingly and that there should be a particular care taken about the good state of the Bodies of such Cattel viz. that they were Sound Healthy free from Uncleannesses and Surfits for whatsoever inconveniences attend the Creature before killed the Flesh does still retain and therefore the Eaters thereof cannot but pertake of the evils for the causes before mentioned Flesh in these Months ought to be eaten sparingly is any at all there being many other sorts of Food that do far exceed Flesh and Fish more especially in this Season as Bread Butter Cheese Gruels Pottages of various sorts Eggs Herbs and many others that are after a little use more pleasant healthier generate firmer Nourishment and greater Strength if Sobriety and Temperance were observed and other Circumstances belonging to Health a little Flesh would serve in this Age a man may speak and write of Temperance and an orderly choise of Food which can never be understood nor believed without practising which makes all notions essential few do or can immagine how little and mean things will every way fully contribute to all Natures wants and necessities There are two or three other things which having the oppertunity tho they may seem not so pertinent to the present Subject I would advertise my Country Men of 1. That Diseases are transferred from one to another several ways but especially by lying in Beds with or after Diseased People which all Persons ought to take notice of there being scarce any sort of Learning more necessary and yet none more neglected for these secret conveyances of Vertue and Venome or the transfering of Distempers from one to another is done after an hidden inpreceptible manner by way of Spirits Gleams Rays and Glances the natural Spirits being so subtle and penetrating as they powerfully search into all things so that a Man cannot touch any thing tho it seem never so impassible or hard as Iron Stone or the like but those nimble Scouts do not only penetrate it but are more or less retained in it if this were not so the Dog could not find the Individual Stone his Master throws amongst a Thousand others nor could he follow him unseen by his Foot-stops nor could the deep mouth'd Hounds trace the light heel'd Hare in all her doubles and winding and tho she runs so fast and swift as she scarce seems to touch the surface of the Earth or bend the topes of the Grass over which she mounts yet she leaves such real Effluviums and impressions enough to betray her to those pursuing Enemies Indeed nothing can hold or withstand the natural Spirits they are so thin quick and piercing no Iron Stone or Wood can resist them and if they will incorporate with those hard substances as is most manifest how much more must they be imbib'd by soft Beds where People lye long Warm and Sweating and where the Air cannot come with its refreshing Influences to cleanse purifie those grosser Excrements the Vehicles or Lodging of malignant Spirits that are continually breathed forth by infirm Persons and of all others Feather-Beds are more dispossed to entertain and welcome such unclean fulsome Vapours therefore it concerns all People especially such as are Young to be careful who they lye with or after all Diseases being catching at one time or other moreover hot soft Feather Beds are for the most part in themselves Unwholsome because they keep the Body too hot and infeeble the Loyns whereas hard clean Beds viz. Quilts or Straw or Flock-Beds but especially Straw are much more commendable as to Health 2. The principal Cause that so many Children especially Young Virgins in London and other parts of this Nation are deformed by crooked and disorderly growing is 1st By reason of their hard Swathing in their Infancy for who ever saw a Black who use no such binding Crooked 2dly This is encreased when they grow up by the tyrany of foolish pernicious Fashons over strait Lacings hard Bodies and stiff Stays invented only for Mischief and the consumption of Whale-Bone all which their weak Bones and tender Nerves cannot endure without great prejudice besides it straitens the Breast and the Vessels of the Stomach and lays Foundations for Asthmas Phtysicks shortness of Breath Green sickness and forty other Malladies 3dly When they come to be about six or seven Years old they are generally put to sowing or working of Samplers as they call it where most of them are kept by an Ignorant Impertinent Mistriss as hard to it as if they were to get their Bread before they eat it five six seven or eight hours in a Day are they there keep sitting in a mopish still Posture with their Heads downwards leaning on their Breasts and all their Limbs crumpled up almost like a Hedge-Hoggs This makes many of them dull Sleepy and Heavy all their Life after by that base early contracted Habit others to ease themselves lolling or leaning on one side hold their Necks awry get a trick of lifting up one Shoulder half a Story higher then the other and a Thousand other ridiculous Postures which by time becomes natural and then the Swing is thought of and the Steel-Bodices sent for which certainly concludes the Work renders their Crookedness yet worse and indeed altogether incurable whereas had these Children been Educated with change of Imployments or Learning viz. one hour or an hour and an half to Sew the next to Read or Write or learn Languages after that to play on the Musick Sing or Paint to go in a handsom Posture their Schooling would not only be much more pleasant and delightsome to them but they would be more Airy Brisk and Healthy and learn more in one hour then they do in several Days by being kept thus dully to one thing so long day after day as it were stupifiing there Sences procuring many other Diseases besides Crookedness which is always accompanied with many other inconveniences which all careful prudent Mothers ought to consider and study to prevent 3. The best Exercises that I have observed against Consumptions shortness of Breath and all kind of Obstructions of the Stomach and Breast are those that most Imploy the Arms and open the Chest therefore for Women to rub Tables for one hour every Morning tell they sweat would not be amiss for Men any sort of Labour on the Water but especially Rowing in Boats with Water men does effectually open and remove all Impediments Diseases of the Brest and Stomach at once it strengthens the Muscles and opens the Passages or if any find themselves inclinable to it the Exercise of Shooting at Butts in a long Bow is very commendable such Exercises have cured many Consumptive Asthmatical People when they have been given over by the Doctors for as the walking in proper Airs gets a good Appetite so the drawing the Bow dilates the Breast and removes Obstructions But I have already exceeded the limits I proposed to my self in this Paper Those that shall observe the Rules herein laid down of Temperance choice of Diet due preparation will I am more then confident find great benefit thereby therefore I shall not Trouble my self to make any Apology to any who having their Eyes blinded by the Dust of Custom and Tradition may be apt to condemn or flight these Advices as useless Chymeras sure I am what I have deliver'd is agreeable to undisguised Nature and whosoever shall Act accordingly will find the benefit but without practice all precepts are vain or at least fruitless unless it be to remain as Monuments to reproach those conceited Fools that dispise and neglect them What I have here candidly and in a simple plain familiar manner delivered I leave to Gods Blessing and the practice of all prudent Lovers of their Health and humble Followers of Nature in her easie and Innocent Methods FINIS
strong Drink Wine and Spirits on such People as are Naturally apt to be Fat and subject to Stoppages and Coughs and how pernicious such Drinks will prove to most People All that find themselves naturally subject to Diseases of the Breast proceeding from Fatness or Flegmatick Gross Humors as Coughs Stoppages and Narrowness of the Passages whose Bodies are apt to be Swell'd and puffed up with Phlegm and evil Iuces all such People I say ought to be very moderate in the quantity they take of strong spirituous Drinks for the frequent use thereof does mightily increase the fore-mention Diseases and indeed that Constitution is rare that it does not hurt for these Liquors so highly prepared by Art not by Nature and by the several Artificial Operations the spirituous parts are made Volatile by which means the Stomach and natural Heat or separative Quality hath nothing to do when such Drinks are poured into the Vessels the Work being done to their Hand so that the spirituous parts do with a quick powerful motion penetrate and force their way through all parts of the Body and dry up that fine sweetning cooling moist Liquor or Radical Humidity by which means the pure Spirits become thick and as it were suffocated and hindered in their free Egress and Regress as is also the Circulation of the Blood that Chariot wherein the Life of Nature Rides and if once stopt the whole must needs fall into great Disorders and on the other side the Gross Sharp Keen Astringent Juces and Particles of such strong Drinks do by their weight force their way downwards into the Passages as into Uiriters and Bowels but before they pass away they do for the most part occasion some signal Evil in the Body if they find any matter or quality there capable to be wrought on whence many times proceed Fluxes Griping Pains Gravel Stone and many other Inconveniences according to each Mans Constitution so that it does not only weaken all the Faculties of the Stomach but which is worst of all the common drinking thereof does powerfully contract the Breast and Vessels thereof because they separate so soon and pass away whereby it makes Nature Idle which is an Infirmity not to be removed by Medicines but only by regular Order and proper Meats Drinks and Exercise which are great supports to the Health and good Condition of Nature 2. All gross succulent Foods do deprave Nature and increase Crudities and Obstructions For Flesh and Fish are Foods not only Gross and liable to Corruption but in their own Natures are Moist Cold and Flegmatick and therefore they generate in the Body not only the Diseases and promote the Passions the Creature was subâ—ect unto in its Life but fill the Body with Venemous Juces to the great prejudice of Nature and they do require a stronger sharper and brisker natural Heat to separate and digest them then is necessary for Vegitations for all fat Foods that proceed from Flesh are not only harder of Concoction but they Fur and Obstruct the Passages for Oyly Bodies are not so easily dissolvable as the Bodies of vegitations neither do they afford such a brisk Cordial Spirit as all Skill'd in Chymistry can tell you do not all the Noble Liquors and Excelerating Cordial Juces proceed from Vegitations or from Fruits Corn and Seeds not from the Fat of Flesh or Fish for their juces presently Corrupt Putrifie and Stink nor can Art long preserve them therefore such food does by degrees generate Obstructions dull the edge of the Appetite and help to contract the Vessels For this cause those that make Flesh and Fish their common Food are for the most part dull and of heavy lumpish Dispositions Especially when they grow in Years and are apt to be short Winded or on any little accasion or exercise to fetch their Breath with difficulty Now this Fouling and Contracting the Passages of the Stomach which too high Unnatural Food and Drinks 〈◊〉 the occasion of are far greater Evils then most imagine being the true original of most Griping Windy Distempers both in the Bowels and Stomach for all sorts of Natures and Constitutions do continually generate Airy Windy matter without which Nature cannot subsist nor continue in Health being as necessary as Food and these windy Dispositions of Nature do never injure or distemper any except the Passages are obstructed and contracted which hinders their Circulating and free Egress and Regress not only downwards and upwards but through the whole Body and all parts thereof 'T is also to be noted that Rich Compounded Foods and the common use of strong Drink do not only Generate Compounded Diseases but put nature as it were on a firment as if it were in a Feavor which does mightily Burn up and Consume the sweet moistening Dews which are Natures Balsamick Oyle of Life and this does not only thicken and stagnate the Humours but dull and render the Spirits Heavy and Impure which is the original cause of the generation of Gross Fat Flegmatick Juces and Matter for those Gross Fat Paunches are seldom caused from the quantity of Foods but cheifly from the Quality and the frepuent use of Exhilerating Drinks and want of proper Exercise in agreeable Airs for the narrow Vessels and Passages in a little time do weaken the natural Heat and then a great part of the Food turns to Gross Juces for want of a quick Fire to separate them Hence it is that most Fat People are subject to go to Stool often which is a sign of a weak Heat and if such happen to be bound in their Bodics then their Heads are frequently troubled with Fumes and other Disorders which do also show that the Passages and Vessels of the Stomach are not only narrow but many Crudities and Obstructions that the windy substance that is continually generated are occasioned which does rarely happen to Persons that have strong natural Heats in whom the Passages and Vessels of the Stomach are large enough for all sorts of Humours both Good and Bad to pass in and out and circulate freely from one part to another which renders all such Persons Healthful Active and Lively 'T is also to be known that the Radix or true cause of the Diseases called Vapours and Fainting or Trembling Fits is the forementioned Disorders in Meats Drinks and Exercises which will better appear if we consider what sort of People viz. Women are most subject to such Diseases for we generally find them to be not only naturally of tender weak Spirits small Vessels narrow Passages and but weak Constitutions but such whose Education and bringing up has been Foolishly Nice and Irregular such as Live Easily Fare Deliciously without Labour or proper Exercise such as scarce can get themselves Drest before Dinner and snort out more then half their Life in soft and over-warm Beds which course cannot but contract the Vessels and mightily infeeble all parts of the Body so that then the Blood Natures Balsamick Fountain
is thickened their Spirits dull and impure and each part sympathizing in the Mischief on every petty Accident as Love Hate Fear Anger Grief c. the Spirits being so debilitated are I resently Wounded and all the Salliports of Nature Swells or seems to be Closed which hinders Transpiration and Breathing and then in a moments time they fall into wild agonous Fits and all the parts tremble and are disordered which Diseases Country Women of Exercise that live on mean simple Foods and small Drink are very rarely afflicted with but when I consider how Impurdently most People Live what Disorders they commit how Hetrogenious their Foods and Drinks are together with the many other idle Habits and secret Wounds they give Innocent Nature by visiting too frequently the Shades of Venus which quickly makes the strongest Nerves to Bow and is the chief Cause and Original of most Consumptions especially in the Males I say when we consider all this we need not wonder at the multitude of Torturing Diseases abroad in the World but rather admire People are so Well and Healthful as they appear to be What an Hodg-potch do most that have Abilities make in their Stomachs which must wonderfully oppress and distract Nature For if you should take Flesh of various sorts Fish of as many Cabbages Parsnops Turnops Potatoes Mustard Butter Cheese a Pudden that contains more then ten several Ingredents Tarts Sweet-meats Custards and add to these Churries Plums Currans Apples Capers Olives Anchovies Mangoes Caveare c. and jumble them altogether into one Mass what Eye would not loath what Stomach not abhor such a Gallemaufry yet this is done every Day and counted Gallent Entertainment To teach this mischievous Art Books are Written and to practise it French Cooks are Imployed as if we had not natural Folly and Vanity enough at home but must learn it by Art and from forreign Nations in the mean time how is poor Nature Captivated how doth she Groan in a Language severely to be felt tho not heard Therefore if you would avoid those Torturing Diseases and Inconveniences observe the following Rules always remember that most Distempers are contracted through Excess and inordinate Living nor does any thing preserve the Body in Health or the Mind in perfect Freedom so much as Sobriety and Temperance 1. Let not a little Trouble thwarting your unruly Appetites or fond Humours depraved with ill Customs and Wantonness divert you from getting your selves possest of this Jewel Temperance that true Phylosophers-Stone which turns all into the Golden Elixir of Health Content and Serenity since we see none of the little perishing Goods of this World are to be had or obtained without Trouble and Difficulty 2. Neither Meats nor Drinks are to be taken that are too strong for each Mans particular Nature or Constitution which for the most part are such as are compounded of many Ingredients of contrary qualities but let Nature always be stronger then the Food which will be sure to prevent Surfeits and a Thousand other Inconveniences 3. As you are not to accustom your selves to the frequent eating of Foods that are over Fat for the Reasons aforesaid so neither ought you at any time to Eat or Drink of any thing whatsoever to Dulness especially if compounded with rich Ingredients for the same will certainly sow the Seeds of Grievous Diseases Therefore if any healthy Person feel himself oppressed after Meat he ought to consider the reason thereof and thenceforth make abatement in the quantity or alter the quality do not most People find themselves before Eating and Drinking Quick Lightsome and full of Spirits provided they have not fasted too long but after their Meales because they make them Immoderate they are generally sensible of a cloging Heaviness and dull Indisposition which is a certain Index that the necessity and conveniency of Nature is exceeded either in quantity or quality since the true intention of Food is to Refresh and Support Nature and not to Oppress and Incommode her 4. But the greatest Snare in Eating and Drinking and therefore the Psalmist teaches us to pray That our Tables may not be our Snare is when Meats and Drinks are not Simple but Compounded whereby the liquorish pleasures of the Pallate is prolonged many degrees beyond the necessities of Nature and indeed beyond the concoctive ability of the Stomach whence many People over-charge This whilst wantonly they gratifie That and so heap up Crudities Noxious Juces Torturing Diseases and in the end Death it self 5. Moderate Fasting is an excellent means to preserve both the Body and Mind in Health and Serenity for it cleanseth the Stomach by digesting and removing the Obstructions that lie in the Passages and also purifie the Blood and then how sweet how agreeable is every mean wholsome thing to the well prepared Stomach such sober Persons feel and taste the most pleasant opperation of the divine hand in all things their Bodies are delight ed with that which is Natural Clean and Innocent their Minds satisfied their Beds easie their Sleep Sound they are not subject to dull Indispositions nor molested with Feavours nor are their Stomachs or Bowels oppressed with Fainting Fits or Windy Griping Humours they rise as Early and no less Fresh then the Morning Sun Blyth and Merry as the Lark and are fit for all Exercise either of the Body or the Mind their radical moysture flowes freely through every part like a pleasant gale of Wind over the Sun-parcht Mountains which moderate the central Fires that they burn not violently In a word proper Fasting is the best Physician preserves Health far beyond their Evacuations it has an accult quality for the digestive faculty and natural heat is never Idle therefore when the Stomach and Vessels thereof are not filled with superfluity of Food and often Eatings and Drinkings it draws away all the superfluous matter that furs and stops the Passages and which otherwise is apt to cause Coughs and shortness of Breathing and sends troublesome Fumes and Vapours into the Crown 6. Therefore be careful that you do not Eat or Drink between Meals or before the former Foods and Drinks be perfectly Concocted nothing more obstructs Nature and hurts the Blood keeping the Body as it were in a continual Feavour for the fresh Juces of those too frequent supplies of Foods and Drink do obstruct the Passages and dulls the Spirits that they cannot pass freely in their due order and circulation whence Windiness and Crudities are generated which is the principal cause of the common Indispositions many People are troubled with 7. Foods ill dressed destroys Health especially Flesh whilst some will wantonly eat it half Raw and all Bloody which looks Inhumane and others will have it so over-prepared that no good Nourishment can be drawn from it both which doth generate bad Blood and cause a lumpish heaviness to possess the whole Body because the lively brisk aiery fine Spirit in such Foods is destroyed in the Preparation 8.