within made by a passionate troubled mind the prospect would be strange and much different from that placidness and tranquillity of an indisturbed quiet Soul 2. Strong and vehement passions or affections of the mind too intent upon this or that object whether desirable and to be enjoyed or formidable and to be avoided alienate suspend and draw off the wonted vigour influence and preservative power of the Soul due to the body whereby the functions and necessary operations are not duly and sufficiently performed but intempestively remisly and weakly Nor is the dammage only privative but also introduceth and impresseth upon the spirits a morbifick Idea which is ens reale seminale producing this or that effect according to the nature and property of the Idea received and aptitude of the recipient subject Phancies and Idea's are let in naked but they streight are invested and cloathed in the body have a real existence and are entia realia though at first conception but entia rationis as the longing of a pregnant Woman being but the Idea of a thing in her mind it begets various and real distempers in her body if not soon satisfied and sometimes characterized upon the Embryo in the Womb. Likewise a good stomach is taken off its meat suddenly by the coming of some unwelcom bad news the appetite is gone now the oul is disquieted and the Body really affected and altered Let these sad tydings be contradicted and the Soul satisfied of the truth to the contrary it sets a new impression upon the spirits they strait are cheared lively and active the stomach calls for meat and drink and the faculties restored to their wonted operations Whereby it appears the two passions of joy and grief as they are opposite in their objects so are their effects wrought in the Body as far distant and different 3. A cogitative or contemplative person too intent always or unseasonably employing the mind seriously and eagerly either in real or fictitious matters fabricating Idea's upon the spirits disturbs and hinders other necessary offices in the body and operations conservative of its being enervates and weakens their performance in duty impares Health and hastens old Age but those that live most incurious and void of studious thoughts too serious cogitations and disquieting passions preserve the strength of Nature and integrity of all the Faculties protract the verdure and beauty of youth much longer from declensions and decay for by how much the rational faculty is over-busie disturbed and intempestively exercised drawing the full vigour of the Soul into the discharge of that faculty and robbing other inferiour functions of their necessary influential supply and emanative power from the Soul by so much the other faculties are impoverished and abated their executions more languid and depraved and therefore it is a close Students life a careful or passionate mind disposeth to and introduceth many infirmities enervates and debilitates nature abbreviates and shortens her course SECT XXIII Distempers and Perturbations of the Soul particularly Of Anger THis Passion is a great Disease if we consider the preternatural effects and alterations it maketh for the functions of the body are disordered and discomposed by it and the whole man changed from what he was In giving judgment upon Diseases so much worse is that person to be accounted whose alteration is greater from what he was in a state of health and as the functions perverted are more in number and superiour in dignity This Disease does not take up one particular part for its quarters but it seiseth the whole Man All the Faculties are disordered and every part is discomposed and disturbed Take a view of an angry Man or rather a Man in the fury and perturbation of Anger his Reason is supprest or suspended he acts not rationally but as a mad man his face is changed his eyes stare and sparkle his Tongue stammers his Heart pants his Pulse beats high and quick his Breath is almost gone the Blood and all the Humours boyl and the Spirits are agitated to and fro by gusts like an impetuous Wind he trembles all over and this storm shaketh the whole Fabrick of his body Surely this is a great Disease that thus discomposeth and puts the whole man out of frame and order such storms as these do much weaken and enervate the ability of the Faculties disorder their regular performance and discharge of their Offices but more especially infirm Parts are made sensible of the prejudice and cholerick lean bodies An inflammation of any particular part is a great Disease but Anger is an inflammation of the whole and were this distemper to continue long a man were in as much danger of life as in the highest Feaver Therefore take the Poets counsel Principiis obsta Ne fraena animo permitte Calenti Stat. Fear Fear whether sudden and violently seizing or gradually approaching and threatning an evil to come both enervates and debilitates Nature Fear suddenly surprizing chaseth the spirits to and fro from their residency and faculties sometimes compressing and driving them to the heart causing violent palpitations and suffocation or scattering them from the Fountain of Life into the external parts making a dissolution almost to exanimation Such frightful surprizes as these are very dangerous and seldom happen but they leave some sad Characters and Impressions behind Etiam fortes viri subitis terrentur Tacit. Against this fear there is no remedy having surprized and seized the Person before deliberation can interpose to prevent it or preparation made couragiously to meet or valiantly to stand against this shock of terrour Fear that gives warning before the evil comes and threatens as yet afar off that Soul which then yields up her courage and strength of resistance is disarm'd by her own phancy and vanquished by her self is conquered with nothing in Being but with the fear of something that may be The evil although to come which possibly may be prevented and never come yet it is made a present calamity the suggestions being received and the Soul sinking under them make a pressure upon the Soul as really afflicting as the evil it self Multos in summo peric'la misit timor ipse mali Luc. Such fears as these ought to be chased away and manfully resisted that which may be is as far from us sometimes as that which never shall be The fear of things that never come are ten to those that come to pass Quid juvat dolori suo occurrere Satis citò dolebit cùm venerit Sen. As Anger swells the Soul and thrusts forward the spirits into the exteriour parts to oppose and to revenge the ill On the contrary Fear makes the Soul to shrink and the spirits to give back By this contraction of the Soul her wonted vigorous emanations in all the faculties are suspended whereby the functions of the Body are remisly and depravedly performed the spirits retire inwards the face grows pale wan and thin and the Soul pines and
If cold the faculties are torpid and benum'd the spirits being frozen up to a cessation from their duties If moisture prevails the spirits are clogged suffocated and drowned in the chanels of the body If siccity and dryness the organical parts are stubborn unpliable and uncapable of their regular motions and due actions the vital streams being drunk up that should irrigate refresh and supple them Were the body always taking in and sending nothing forth it would either increase to a monstrous and vast magnitude or fill up suffocate and stifle the soul were it always in excretion and emission the body would waste away and be reduced to nothing Nor is the receiving in of any thing sufficient and satisfactory to the body for its preservation but that which is appointed by Nature proper and sutable nor emission or ejection of any thing but that which is superfluous and unnecessary to be retained If Sleep prevails contrary to the Law of Nature the body in a lethargick soporiferous inactivity stupefied and senseless lies at the gates of death If Watching exceeds the limits transgresseth and steals away the due time for sleep the faculties are debilitated and enervated the spirits tired worn out and impoverished If Inspiration were constant without intermission the body would puff up and be blown like a Bladder If Expiration were continual the soul and spirits would soon quit their habitation and come forth If always Exercised in motion the body would pine and wear away if always at Rest it would corrupt and stink There is a rule therefore proportion measure and season to be observed in all the requisite supports and auxiliary helps belonging to our preservation and by how much or often any of these necessary alternative successions are extravagant and irregular exceeding the bounds and limits prescribed by Nature and justling out the successive appointed action duty or custom from its seasonable exercise and due execution by so much is the harmony of Nature disturbed vigor abated and duration shortned by these jars discords and encroachments The thwarting and crossing of Nature in any thing she hath enjoyned either in the substance or circumstance is violence offered to Nature and is destructive more or less according to the dignity or quality of the thing appointed For Nature was not so indifferent in the institution of these duties and customs that they might be done or not done or so careless and irregular to leave them at your pleasure when and how or to be used promiscuously and preposterously without order at the liberty of your will fancy and occasions And as you may see in all other creatures exactness of rule method and constant order impressed upon and radicated in their natures by which they act always sutable regular and constant you may not imagine so choice and exquisite a piece as Man is to be left without a Law and Rule to guide and steer him in the necessary actions concerning Life and that he should rove in uncertain unconstant unlimited quantities times orders manners and the like but is bounded and restrained upon penalties and forfeitures of Being well-being and long-being to the nice and strict observance of these laws and customs necessary for the tuition of Life and defence of humane frailty As moral good actions are placed in a mediocrity between two vitious extreams so natural actions and auxiliary requisites conservative of life have their golden Mean digression from which on either side leads to ruine and destruction Too much Sleep or too little too much Meat and Drink or too little too much Rest or too much Motion too much Air or always close pent up too great Excretions or too long Retentions too much Heat or too much Cold either of the extreams lead to ruine And as Nature hath not appointed any thing or every thing to be food but this and that so likewise not at any time to be received not in any quantity after any manner prepared or in what order you please but proportionable suteable and convenient As there is variety of dispositions and inclinations of mind agreeing with and likeing one thing but disagreeing resisting and disliking another so is it in the variety of bodies and food one body is of this constitutional propriety temper and appetite will sute and agree well with this meat and disagree with another for if all meats were convenient for all bodies to be used promiscuously without choice how comes it to pass the antipathy resistance and abhorrency of some bodies against some particular meats And this not from a fancy and conceit but so radicated in the constitution that if it be eaten though unknown shall produce Fluxes Vomitings Swoonings and such like effects From hence is manifested the opposition disagreement and distance between this constitution and this kind of meat which being so great that the dislike and discordancy appears presently other disagreements which are in a lower degree of opposition do not manifest themselves immediately yet they produce ill effects in the body plùs minùs pro viribus some Disease or Distemper which discover themselves gradually at times seasons and occasions given If you acknowledge the former you must admit of the latter the reason is à majori ad minus As Sleep is appointed by Nature to refresh the spirits and repair loss strength so the time for sleep is appointed and limited not when you please the Sun that glorious Light was not made for you to sleep by nor the night for sports and revels or lawful business but for rest Nature does not only command what to be done but when how much how long after what manner in what order the modification circumstances and requisite qualifications as well as the thing it self are to be regarded And therefore by a diligent inquisition and curious speculation into the works of Nature you may as much admire the manner of preservation government order weight and measure regular vicissitudes alternations and successions as the excellency and contrivance of the things themselves in their creation and generation Whatever is appointed by Nature as necessary for conservation and support of Being though never so good yet if it be unseasonable out of course immoderate in quantity quality or duration it alters the property and intention of Nature converts good purposes to bad effects We say Every thing is best in its own kind and of continuance in its own Element and Nature is most chearful vigorous and durable in the course and method of her own injunctions but being put by thrust out of her own way is not of long duration the Birds cannot live in the Sea nor the Fish upon the Land nor your Nature continue long in an unnatural way against her self Are you composed of natural principles and will you not live conformable to what you are Do you not live by Natures assistance and natural means and do you think to continue long in a Counter-motion against the nature of your Composition
properties of several bodies one thing will not agree with all Therefore he that cannot drink warm let him take it cold and it is well to him but he that drinks it warm does better And this is to be understood in frosty Winter when the extremity of cold hath congelated and fixed the spirits of the Liquor in a torpid inactivity which by a gentle warmth are unfettered volatile and brisk whereby the drink is more agreeable and grateful to the stomachs fermenting heat being so prepated than to be made so by it Having set forth the several sorts of Drink used and therein shewed their nature and qualities and qualifications I come now to regulate the Quantity as most conducing to Health and Longevity There are three sorts of Drinkers one drinks to satisfie Nature and to support his body without which he cannot well subsist and requires it as necessary to his Being Another drinks a degree beyond this man and takes a larger dose with this intention to exhilarate and chear his mind to banish cares and trouble and help him to sleep the better and these two are lawful drinkers A third drinks neither for the good of the body or the mind but to stupifie and drown both by exceeding the former bounds and running into excess frustrating those ends for which drink was appointed by Nature converting this support of life and health making it a procurer of sickness and untimely death Some to excuse this intemperance hold it as good Physick to be drunk once a month and plead for that liberty as a wholesom custom and quote the authority of a famous Physician for it But whether this Opinion be allowable and to be admitted in the due Regiment for preservation of health is fit to be examined It is a Canon established upon good reason That every thing exceeding its just bounds and golden mediocrity is hurtful to Nature The best of things are not excepted in this general rule but are restrained and limited here to a due proportion The necessary supports of life may prove the procurers of death if not qualified and made wholesom by this corrective Drink exceeding its measure to excess is no longer a refreshment to irrigate and water the thirsty body nor a preservative but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers and is the cause of sickness It puts a man out of the state of health and represents him in such a degenerate condition both in respect of body and mind that we may look upon the man as going out of the World because he is already gone out of himself and strangely metamorphosed from what he was I never knew sickness or a Disease to be good preventing Physick and to be drunk is no other than an unsound state and the whole body out of frame by this great change What difference is there between sickness and drunkenness Truly I cannot distinguish them otherwise than as genus and species Drunkenness being a raging Distemper denominated and distinguished from other sicknesses by its procatartick or procuring cause Drink That Drunkenness is a Disease or sickness will appear in that it hath all the requisites to constitute a Disease and is far distant from a state of health for if Health be the free and regular discharge of all the functions of the body and mind and sickness when the functions are not performed or weakly and depravedly then Ebriety may properly be said to be a Disease or Sickness because it hath the symptoms and diagnostick signs of an acute and great Disease for during the time of drunkenness and some time after few of the faculties perform their offices rightly but very depravedly and preternaturally If we examine the intellectual faculties we shall find the reason gone the memory lost or much abated and the will strangely perverted If we look into the sensitive faculties they are disordered and their functions impedited or performed very deficiently the eyes do not see well nor the ears hear well nor the palate rellish c. The speech faulters and is imperfect the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates the legs fail Indeed if we look through the whole man we shall see all the faculties depraved and their functions either not executed or very disorderly and with much deficiency Now according to these symptoms in other sicknesses we judge a man not likely to live long and that it is very hard he should recover the danger is so great from the many threatning symptoms that attend this sickness and prognosticate a bad event here is nothing appears salutary but from head to foot the Disease is prevalent in every part which being collated the syndrom is lethal and judgment to be given so Surely then Drunkenness is a very great Disease for the time but because it is not usually mortal nor lasts long therefore it is slighted and lookt upon as a trivial matter that will cure it self But now the question may be asked Why is not Drunkenness usually mortal since the same signs in other Diseases are accounted mortal and the event proves it so To which I answer All the hopes we have that a man drunk should live is First From common experience that it is not deadly Secondly From the nature of the primitive or procuring Cause strong Drink or Wine which although it rage and strangely discompose the man for a time yet it lasts not long nor is commonly mortal The inebriating spirits of the liquor flowing in so fast and joining with the spirits of mans body make so high a tide that overflows all the banks and bounds of order For the spirits of mans body those agents in each faculty act smoothly regularly and constantly with a moderate supply but being over-charged and forced out of their natural course and exercise of their duty by the large addition of furious spirits spurs the functions into strange disorders as if Nature were conflicting with death and dissolution but yet it proves not mortal And this first because these adventitious spirits are amicable and friendly to our bodies in their own nature and therefore not so deadly injurious as that which is not so familiar or noxious Secondly Because they are very volatile light and active Nature therefore does much sooner recover her self transpires and sends forth the overplus received than if the morbifick matter were more solid ponderous and fixed the gravamen from thence would be much worse and longer in removing as an over-charge of Meat Bread Fruit or such like substances not spirituous but dull and heavy comparativè is therefore of more difficult digestion and layes a greater and more dangerous load upon the faculties having not such volatile brisk spirits to assist Nature nor of so liquid a fine substance of quick and easy digestion as strong drink So that the symptoms from such food are much more dangerous than those peracute distempers arising from Liquors And farther those bad symptoms in other Diseases are more to be feared and
Sometimes dilate them as in Joy Love and Desire Sometimes drives them furiously as in Anger wherein also the humours are fluctuating sometimes this way and sometimes that way according to the nature of the Passion which hath its peculiar motion and current And as other Diseases have their Diagnostick Signs to distinguish them and whereby they may be known So likewise the Passions have their peculiar Characters of distinction that it is not difficult to know under what passion a man labours We judge of other sicknesses very much by the Face what alteration there So by the Countenance we may know what Passion is predominant each putting on a different aspect and presenting it self in another shape and visage Passion in excess although it be the perturbation and sickness of the mind yet it is not confined there but is communicated to the Body which partakes and shares in the morbous effect If the Mind be distempered and discomposed the Body cannot continue in health The Soul and Body are so interwoven with each other and conjunct in their Operations that they act together enjoy and suffer together They are so linked and conjoined as Partners of each others ill and welfare that the one is not affected but the other is drawn into consent mutually acting enjoying and suffering until death Hence it is a diseased Body makes a heavy drooping mind and a wounded disturbed or restless mind makes a youthful healthy body to decay and languish Who therefore desires the health and welfare of the body must procure Ease Rest and Tranquillity of mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That you may the better know and rightly understand how passions of the mind redound and reflect upon the body to the decay and ruine of it and abbreviating mans life First Consider that the Body without the Souls energy is dead and moves not at all by vertue of the Souls conjunction with it and informing power the Body acts with various motions and operations and according to the activity of the Soul with organical aptitude and fitness of the Body is the exquisiteness and perfection of their operations The Soul then is Agent the Body passive receiving the influx virtue and power from the Soul who is Rectrix and Gubernatrix to whom the Rule and Government belong It is evident therefore since the Body cannot act any thing of it self for its conservation without the energy and assistance from the Soul whose care is for the regulating and moderating the Body in all actions external and internal than the distractions inactivity wandrings and neglects of the Soul do tend to the subversion of this due order and government and consequently the ruine and dissolution of the body which requires a constant supply of daily reparation and a regular tuition for its support and maintenance Now the Soul transported by passion from its genuine order and mode of placidness and tranquillity and reduced into a turbulent unquiet and distempered state is a condition of incapacity and unfitness for government for that time being and many damages arise thereby as in each passion particularly hereafter will appear In a threefold manner the Soul is put besides her self in the regularity of rectory and is incurious of the welfare of the Body First The Soul is either carried away by some delightful object as for something vehemently desired and deserting as it were the body to follow after that thing desired and coveted extending her power and strength out of the body to lay hold if possibly to obtain and bring within the Sphere and Circle of her enjoyment as in the Passion of Love Or secondly The Soul is in fury and disquieted within by the apprehension of something assaulting and disturbing to which the Soul hath a contrariety and antipathy against as in the passions of Fear Hatred Revenge Anger And this disquietude and disturbance is continued by representations of their causes in the phantasie which still present themselves to the Soul by way of a fresh assault which feeds the Passion and continues the Distemper Or thirdly The Soul is languishing heavy and inactive altogether indisposed to the government and tuition of the body and perhaps desirous to be discharged and shake it off being weary of the burthen taking no delight in their partnership and society as in melancholy despair and grief In all which cases you shall find the Body to suffer great prejudice and detriment In the first Case When the Soul alienates her self wanders away with a vehement desire to procure and obtain any thing most agreeable and delightful the Soul as it were contracts her self and unites all her force stands at full bent after this beloved dischargeth all her thoughts upon it and spends her strength in desire and longing until at last she pines away with a tedious and starving expectation if the beloved thing be not obtained In the interim the oeconomy and government of her own mansion the Body is neglected the spirits which are accounted the Souls immediate Instruments in every Faculty at least a considerable part are inticed away and called off from their proper and peculiar works and duty perhaps to enlarge and increase the vigour of some other faculty more immediately subvervient and attending the Souls new design and business preferred far before a good digestion due excretion nutrition seasonable rest or what else and those spirits remaining which have the burthen of these duties incumbent on them have so small and inconsiderable support and supply of influence from the Soul to direct and back them in their performance that the functions are executed weakly and depravedly to the great prejudice and damage of the Body Digestion now is not so good nor the Appetite so quick the stomach calls not for a new supply as yet not being well discharged and quit of yesterdays provision the stomach now is weary of dressing and preparing long Dinners for the Body Lenten and fasting days are its vacation from trouble Separation now is not so good the excrementitious and nutritious part walk hand in hand together and pass without contradiction or due examination the watch now is not so strict at the Ports and privy passages to discern what is fit to pass this way and what the other or what to reject and keep out but promiscuously receive what presents it self Distribution now is not so good Aliment tires by the way wanting spirits to convey and bring it to its journeys end and exercise to jog it on through the angust Meanders and more difficult passages Sanguification is now degenerated and vitiated the preceding requisites and fit praevious dispositions in order thereto being wanting Membrification or Assimilation is now changed for a Cachectick and depraved habit Excretion and Evacuation of what is superfluous and unfit longer to be retained in the body is not sent away in due time but stays for a Pass the Governess is now taken up with other matters neglects due orders
and commands to the expulsive faculty for their emission All necessary and wholesom Customs are now neglected and disregarded the Soul too oft is wandring and gadding abroad and best when she is roving from home but neglects the airing of her Cottage and perfuming it with fresh aetherean breath The Soul is now always restless and disturbed nor shall the Senses her Attendants take their due repose but keeps an unquiet house at midnight In the second Case The regular and due order of government in the Body is subverted and changed when the Soul in the forementioned passions of Fear Anger Hatred and Revenge is disturbed and alarum'd by the assault approach or appearance of some evil or injury the Soul then summons the spirits together and commands them from their common duties calls them to her aid and assistance for security from danger to repulse the violence offered or revenge the injury hurrying them here and there from one part to another in a tumultuous manner if the assault be suddain and surprizing sometimes inward to support the heart to give courage and resolution which by their suddain concourse and confluence to the Center causeth great palpitations and almost suffocation or else commanding them to the out-works into the external parts to repel the invasion and violence of the evil presenting or approaching or to revenge the quarrel the Hands and Arms then receive a double or treble strength the Muscles being full and distended with agile spirits for their activity and strength in motion The Eyes then are staring full and stretch'd forth with a croud of inflamed spirits darting forth their fury and spending their strength upon the Adversary and Object of their trouble The Tongue then is swelled with spirits and big words that wanting a larger room for vent tumbles out broken and imperfect speeches and scarce can utter whole words The Legs and Feet then have an Auxiliary supply and double portion of spirits conveighed into their Nerves and Sinews to increase their agility and strength to come on or off But in the mean time the Heart perhaps is almost fainting so long being deprived of and deserted by those lively vigorous spirits which did inhabit and quarter there for its Life-Guard protection and support but are now called off their Guard and common duties imployed in Foreign Parts commanded here and there as the emergent occasions present to the Governess of this Microcosm In the third case mentioned the due order government and necessary execution of offices belonging to the welfare and maintenance of the body and preservation of life are neglected and weakly performed When the Soul being darkned and overspread with a cloud of sadness betakes her self to a sullen incurious recumbency and retiredness willing to resign up and cast off the government and tuition of the body and as a burthen which she now delights not to bear about begins to lose her hold who before had embraced and clipt so close suspending the virtue of her energy and vigorous emanations acting faintly and coldly those necessary mutual performances without regard to their former friendship or their future conjunct preservation The Body now begins to sink with its own weight and press towards the Earth the natural place from whence it came That active spirit which before had buoyed it up and took delight to sport it to and fro is now ready to let it fall and grovel downwards to leave it whither it must go The wonted pleasures of their partnership and society are now disgusted and rejected Food now hath lost its relish and is become unsavoury Sleep which before was pleasant as a holy-day in the fruition of rest and ease is now composed of nothing but troublesome unquiet dreams linked together with some sighing intervals to measure out the weary night by Exercise and sporting Recreations are now accounted drudgery and laborious toyling unwilling is the Soul to move her Yoke-fellow farther than the enforcing Law of Nature and necessity commands and urgeth Their joint operations which before were duly and unanimously performed are now ceased abated or depraved by the retraction reluctance and indisposed sadness of the Soul to act the wonted vigorous emanations of the Soul and her radiant influence upon the spirits is now suspended subducted and called back These ministring attending Spirits and nimble Agents which at a beck were always ready agile and active in the execution of her commands now want Commands to stir and Warrants to act by but in a torpid and somnolent indisposition unfit for action and the exquisite performance of their duties and in a sympathizing complyance with the Soul the excitrix and rectrix of their motions they are ready to resign their Offices and give over working that what they now do is faintly and remisly performed with much deficiency and depravation When the Soul is pleased and merry the spirits dance and are chearful at their work but when she droops and mourns the spirits are dull heavy and tired the Functions but weakly and insufficiently executed From the preceding Discourse may easily be collected that the Distempers and Alienations of the Soul from her genuine state of serenety and quietude is of great disadvantage to Health for as much as the necessary Functions of the Body from hence are disordered and insufficiently performed these perturbations also impressing upon the Body various preternatural effects forming the Ideas and Characters of Diseases upon the spirits which are by them communicated implanted and propagated in the body likewise the morbifick Seeds and secret Characters of Diseases which lay dead and inactive are by the oeconomical disturbance and perturbation of mind awakened moved and stirred up to hostility and action which otherwise would have layen dormant as by grief fear anger hysterical passions swoonings epilepsies c. are often procured and it is evident and commonly observed by infirm and diseased people how passion aggravates and heightens their distempers and according to the temper of their mind will their bodily infirmities be aggravated or abated I shall draw up this Discourse into three Corollaries being the Epitome of what hath been asserted and aimed at 1. There is no perturbation or passion of mind whether little or great but it works a real effect in the Body more or less according to the nature and strength of the passion and by how much the more sudden great often and of longer duration the passion is by so much are the impressions and effects worse more durable and indeleble You cannot be angry or envious or melancholy or give way to any such passion but you cherish and feed an Enemy that preys upon your life and you may be assured that passion makes as great nay greater alteration within the body than the change of your countenance appears to outward view which is not a little although but a shadow or reflexion of the inward distemper and disorder And were it possible by any perspective to see the alteration and discomposure
languisheth with the apprehension of a seeming future evil and the prospect of a dubious impending fate Plura sunt quae nos terrent quà m quae premunt saepius opinione quam re laboramus What if the evil threatned be too great for you to encounter with now yet either your power may be enlarged before it comes or that may be lessened and reduced within the compass of your ability to resist and power to contend with Quicquid humana ope majus est Diis permitte curandum Symmach Care Care is a mixt passion made up of Desire and Fear There is in Care a desire of getting and a fear of losing the anxiety between these two enervates and weakens the strength of the Soul she spends her self in projection to acquire and get and labours continually also under the fear of loss either of that already gotten or of that which is in possibility and likely to be obtained Being thus disquieted and always in an unsatisfied condition the Body is enfeebled and checkt from thriving Meat and Drink will not nourish if they be not changed duly in the digestions and assimilated into the substance of the Body by the energy of a vigorous Soul in a placid state of government not drawn off unseasonably and constantly with perplexing thoughts Always plodding in mind is not good if your purse gains and thrives by it I am sure your body loseth and grows worse The Poet's advice in this condition is good sometimes being discreetly used Nunc vino pellite curas Hor. And another well admonisheth from perplexing your selves with future contrivances and provisions Hodierna cura tantum Quis cras futura novit Anacr An indisturbed free mind not loaded with the thoughts of many years to come but bearing only the burthen of the day holds out much longer and preserves the faculties in strength and vigour but immoderate care and a thoughtful life wear out the faculties much sooner tire the spirits by denying them their due times for refreshment rest and ease disable them from duty and the true performance of their Offices heat and waste the spirits and exsiccate the nutritious juices of the Body which change a fresh countenance into paleness degenerate a good Constitution and pine the Body but most injurious to thin lean and cholerick Persons Those too much thus addicted and cumbred with careful thoughts may sometimes imitate this example for a Remedy Nunc potemus laeti jucunda confabulantes Quae vero post erunt diis sint curae Theog Revenge Jealousy and Envy These Diseases of the mind are as painful Ulcers continually lancinating corroding or inflaming they gnaw and eat like a Cancer taking away the nourishment from food and refreshment from sleep the anguish of these sores renders every thing unpleasant and unserviceable for the welfare and support of the Body so that these sicknesses of the mind make the Body to pine and languish introducing a secret Consumption wasting the Spirits and nutritious moisture and enseebling all the faculties Revenge besides the trouble and disquietness of spirit exposeth a man to a greater mischief than what he hath received Multis se injuriis objicit dum una dolet Sen. Jealousie is a secret tormentor that gauls the mind with continual suspicion and raiseth suggestions that afflict the Soul with anxiety and restlesness Envy is a Wolf in the Breast that must be satisfied or it sucks the blood and feeds upon the vitals This Disease pines and starves a man in the midst of plenty and he withers away in the Sunshine of anothers prosperity Invidus alterius rebus macrescit opimis Hor. These perturbations and Diseases of the mind will not let the body thrive for if that be sick the Body cannot be in health Love and Desire These two although they seldom go alone and desire commonly follows close at the heels of Love yet they may be separated and distinguished thus Love is a delight complacency and suteableness with the thing loved Desire is the longing for or stretching forth of the Soul to obtain procure and bring into enjoyment Desire gives wings to the Soul and seemingly transports and brings her to the thing desired so that all her strength is spent in out-goings and stretchings forth to obtain and join with the object of desire Quò non possum Corpore mente feror Ovid. Love and Desire being inordinate and impetuous seldom goe alone but are attended with other Passions as Hope Fear Melancholy Despair one or more for their consorts with which the mind is racked and torn and variously affected as the several Passions act their Parts by turns Sometimes Love is bold and venturous at another time cowardly and fearful sometime hoping and sometimes despairing sometimes brisk and sometimes sad and heavy So that the Soul is tossed up and down and filled with the disquietness of successive mixt Passions attending upon Love and Desire Nor is the Soul only disturbed and hurried away by this Passion of Desire but the Body also is restless and unquiet going from one place to another being not satisfied Here turns away hoping to find more content There Desire is very sollicitous and troublesom and importunate at unseasonable times so that the bed does not give rest and quiet sleeps but is tossing and turning there from side to side and when up cannot stand still or sit still this thorny desire is always spurring on from one place to another but which way to take this giddy Passion cannot well resolve notwithstanding these perplexities the doubts and difficulties of obtaining the Soul is led away with an ignis fatuus of fervent zeal deserts her own mansion the Body and follows after with an eager prosecution of enjoying never at home but as a Prisoner and Prisoners are but bad House-Keepers the body needs must languish and decay when the Soul thus delights and strives to run away By the continuance of these Passions interfering and complicating with each other the regular oeconomy and tuition of the Body is neglected that decays grows lean and consumptive the face grows pale the appetite abates and sleep departs or is but short and interrupted with troublesom dreams and wakings the vigour and strength of the faculties is spent in desiring and by the disquietness of the other attending Passions For a remedy and check to the impetuousness of this inordinate affection and immoderate desire take these considerations to calm allay and regulate your passion First That you cheat your self in setting too high a price upon the object of your affections and you lay out more in expectation than the income of your desire if obtained can possibly make a return that it is far greater in non habendo than it will be in fruendo it will be much less when you have than it seems to be now you have it not Secondly That the Delirium and fervency of your desire does not hasten the accomplishment of your aims but rather retard or frustrate for
to the extremity of Age and full bounds of nature Which that you may so do and obtain conform and steer the course of your life by the Rules and wholesom Precepts hereafter laid down deducted from the method and Law of Nature and you will receive for your recompence these promised earthly felicities Health strength and length of days the true pleasures of a natural Life Nor can such a regular course of Life be accounted uneasy or troublesome as a difficult and severe restraint but most pleasant and free except to those accustomed to the contrary and captivated thereby the leaving of which ill customs is only difficult but the Rules enjoined in themselves are facil and easy to be observed Quod assuescenti primùm difficile non erit assueto Would you see without spectacles and go without crutches or the help of a staff Would you lie easie in your Bed and sleep away the night not telling the Clock and spending the time in wishing for day Would you relish your meat with the sauce of your stomach and drink with a gust would you be young in strength when you are old in Years If you would enjoy the pleasure of your self and the real capacity of enjoying all other things then consult this following advice and exercise your reason in the advantages proposed and compare these precepts with the model of Natures designment you will find them to run parallel with and the true Exposition of natures institutions the which not being observed and conformed to exposeth you to many infirmities enfeebles nature and abbreviates Life Qui medicè vivit sine Medicis diu vivet Qui non medicè vivit cum Medicis saepè sed non diu erit He that lives by Rule and wholesom Precepts takes the best course of preventing Physick he 's a Physician to himself and needs not the help of others but they that live carelesly and irregularly contemning Physical Rules as unnecessary Observations shall be constrained to Physical Remedies as necessary helps and must often resign into the hands of Physicians which course of life can neither be easy nor of long duration But they that desire to live long to see their Childrens Children to preserve their youth strength and beauty to be free from molesting pains and loathsom diseases to preserve their senses and enjoy their endowments of mind to the extremity of Age let them conform and be obedient to the Hygiastick Laws and wholesom Rules hereafter prescribed and they may reasonably expect what is here proposed for their reward Health Vigour and long Life London From my House in Wiâ—i-Office-Câ—…er in Fleetstreet E. M. The Heads and Principal matter treated of SECT I. THE Natural Duration Casual Abbreviation and industrious Prolongation of Mans Life p. 1 Primitive Age how long ibid. Mans Age shortned ibid. the gradual declension p. 1 2. Mans Age differs by places p. 2. other Creatures keep their Age p. 3. why mans life is shortned ibid. how procured p. 4 5 6. mineral vegetable and sensitive their duration p. 7 8. Man most uncertain in Being p. 9. the reasons why p. 9 10. considerable things to be observed p. 11 12 13 14 15 16. propriety of bodies various p. 17. method measure order and season to be observed p. 18 19 SECT II. Of Health and the Excellency thereof p. 20 No content without it p. 20 21. best known by the want p. 21. Health considered strictly and largely p. 22 23. Health defined p. 23. discoverers of Health and sickness p. 24. excellencies of Health p. 25 SECT III. Of Sickness and a valetudinary State p. 27 The attendants and sad consequents of sickness p. 27 28 29. sympathy and consent of parts in mans body p. 29 30 SECT IV. The Method and Means for preservation of Health p. 31 The supports of Life ibid. how to be managed ibid. faculties dependence upon each other p. 32. compared to Clock-work ibid. necessaries to Being bounded and limited p. 33 34 35 SECT V. The choice of Air and Places of Abode shewing the benefits and injuries arising from different Air p. 37 Necessity of Air p. 37. Air disposeth Body and mind ibid. operates upon the spirits p. 38. which the best Air ib. change of Air necessary p. 39. promotes curing ibid. clothing suted to Air and Ages p. 40. changes of Air to be observed p. 41. when and what Air to be abroad in p. 42. best Place to live in p. 43 44. Places bad naturally p. 45. Places bad by neglect ibid. the great importance of Air. p. 46 SECT VI. Wholesom and Regular Eating for Substance Quantity Times and Order c. to be observed p. 47 Aliment or Food what is truly so ibid. in eating four things to be considered p. 48. meats examined by the Palate ibid. by the stomach p. 49. 54. by the constitution ibid. by the season for that kind p. 50. by custom p. 52. by the seasons of the year p. 53. simple diet best ibid. meats heavy and meats light distinguished and named p. 54 55. eight Rules for choice of meat p. 56. Quantity of meat appointed ibid. p. 57 58 59. Times convenient for eating p. 60 61 62. manner of eating and helps to digestion p. 62 63 SECT VII The variety of mans Food the several sorts of Flesh and Fish their difference in digestion and goodness p. 64 Food provided suting all persons ibid. the stores of nature ibid. of Animals for food p. 65. of Beef Veal Mutton Lamb Goat Kid p. 65. Pork Brawn Pig Venison Hare Rabbet p. 66. of tame Fowls Turkey Capon Pullet Chicken Goose Duck Pidgeon Peacock ibid. of wild Fowl Pheasant Partridge Snite Heathcock Woodcock Rails Blackbirds Larks p. 67. of sea and water Fowl Heron Crane Bittern Swan Stork Bustard Seapye Widgeon Puet Curlew Coots Fen-duck Puffin Teal Plover ibid. of salt water fish Sole Smelt Plaice Whiting Oister Maids Pranes and Shrimps ibid. Salmon Turbut Sturgeon Cod Haddock Lobster Thornback Mullet Herring Pilchard Anchove Scallop ibid. of fresh water Fish Trout Perch Pike Carp p. 68 SECT VIII Of various Sauces Spices and seasonings of meat p. 69 Preservatives Correctives Digestives Delectives ibid. the qualities and operation of Salt Sugar Honey Oil p. 69 70 71. Butter Vinegar Mustard Oranges Lemons Verjuce Pepper Ginger Mace Cloves p. 72. Cinnamon Nutmeg Olives Capers Broombuds Sampire Cucumers Onions p. 73 74 SECT IX Of Milk and Milk-meats Eggs and Spoon-meats p. 75 The difference of milk in kind and goodness ibid. Womans Milk Cowes Goat Sheep and Asses Milk compared and estimated p. 76. milk for whom good for whom hurtful p. 76 77. of Cream Butter Cheese Whey and Butter-milk p. 77 78. of Custard Whitepot Cheesecakes Rice milk Frumenty milk Potage p. 78 79. of Caudles Ponado and Water-gruel p. 79 80. Eggs their difference p. 80 81. Turky Egg Hen Goose and Duck Egg p. 80 SECT X. The sorts of Bread Grain and Pulse their goodness compared p. 82 The purpose and use of Bread ibid.
what disease it is ibid. the effects p. 20â— of Love and Desire ibid. defined and distinguished ibid. attended with other passions p. 202 203. what influence upon the body p. 203. Considerations to allay these passions p. 204 205 206. of Melancholy Grief and Despair p. 206. the decayes of Body from thence p. 207. of Hope and Joy ibid. the advantages thereby p. 208 SECT I. The natural Duration casual Abbreviation and industrious Prolongation of Mans Life IN the Primitive Age of the World mans life was accounted to be almost 1000 Years but after the Flood the Life of Man was abbreviated half and none then attained to the term of the first Age except Noah who lived 950 Years And after three Generations from the Flood their lives were reduced to a fourth of the Primitive Age and their lives ordinarily exceeded not two hundred Years About Moses his time the Age of Man was yet shorter commonly not exceeding 120 Years which also was his Age when he died yet we find upon Record in Sacred Writ and from Ecclesiastical Writers that after Moses some lived 240 and 260 yet that was rare but more frequently 120 which was then the common Age. Now the Age of Man is reduced to half that 60 or 70 years we count upon But although in general we find this gradual declension and abbreviation of mans Life in the several Ages of the World yet we must understand it was not equally so in all parts of the World together but places and climates and the manner of living of a people cause much difference in the protraction of their lives that at the same time some people of peculiar places were longer-lived by a third or fourth part then others of another Climate or Region as the Northern People And in colder Countreys they are longer-lived than in the hot Climates and this by reason of the heat that opens the Pores and causeth so great a transspiration that exsiccates and enervates the body but a cooler Air prohibits and restrains such immoderate transspiration and exhaustion keeps the spirits vigorous and united and preserves the alimentary Juyces of the body from too frequent and immoderate exsudation If we examine into the Ages of other Creatures we find little difference in their durations to what they were in the Primitive Times and infancy of the World who keeping to the Rule of Nature implanted in them do preserve their Beings and degenerate little from the integrity of their Durations allotted to them from the beginning Now why Man 's days should be thus abbreviated and shortned from what they were and the term of his life reduced to so short a continuance gradually declining in the several Ages of the World is fit matter to inquire into The causes of the abbreviation of mans life will appear if we compare the manner of our living now with that of the first Age of the World and from thence how every generation have worsted themselves by a degenerate condition of life unsutable to the institutions of Nature And since we must of necessity allow and admit of hereditary infirmities and traductive debilities of Nature we cannot but exspect unless by great reformation of the injurious customs and vices of these latter Ages but that we and our posterity shall degenerate yet still into a worse and sooner-fading state of life For as the principles of our Nature are more infirm tainted and debauched from our Parents and Progenitors than those of former Ages of more vigour soundness and integrity so they are likewise more propense and liable worse to be depraved and degenerate and consequently of shorter duration and continuance Now if we inquire into the condition and manner of living of the Antients comparing with the customs and fashion of this Age we shall find so much difference and irregularity from the appointment and injunction of Nature that may give full satisfaction to the Quaery and matter in hand In the infancy of the World Man provided and sought after the necessary requisites for his Being and was contented with a competent subsistence which Nature did purely require but in process of time Man was not satisfied with the bare reparations and necessary props of Nature most wholesome and conservative of his Being but hunted after variety and excess to please and gratifie his sensitive Appetite Thus one Agâ— taught another to be irregular and disordered and still dictated novel Inventions to the succeeding Generation to fill up and perfect what their Predecessors had prompted and begun whose lives were not long enough to lay a compleat platform of debauched Nature but must transmit their ruining practices to the following Ages to imitate and compleat Hinc illae lachrymae Thus and after this manner by such means is mans life beset with many cruciating maladies which have shortned the days of his abode here and in latter Ages acts but a short part upon the stage of the World And this is procured first by the variety and excess in meat and drink Secondly By unseasonable and immoderate sleeping and watching turning day into night and night into day Thirdly By sluggish and unwholesome ease instead of due exercise and motion or toyling unseasonably and wearing out the body when it requires natural rest and refreshment Fourthly By living in unwholesome places sucking in noysome destructive Air preferring profit and by interests before health and long life Fifthly Indulging Venus too much by immoderate and too frequent repeated acts thereby enervating all the faculties dispiriting and wasting the body Sixthly By wearing and fretting the mind with various passions changing from one excess to another and wracking the body with several disturbing moods and passionate humours Seventhly By exhausting the strength in a prodigal expence of the vital stream with frequent and unnecessary Phlebotomies Eighthly By infecting the body and stamping exotick impressions too frequently with the common virulent purgatives that alienate the crases or ferments of the parts and such like injurious Drugs not rightly corrected and ill prepared Medicines that bring detriment and damage to the body by their use Lastly To these may be added the injurious mannagement of Infants by careless or ignorant Nurses and fond Mothers greatly injuring their Children by a destructive indulgence and erroneous affectionate usage in the ordering and educating them who for the most part live not so long as others Having set forth how mans Life hath declined and shortned in the several Ages of the World and pointed at the chief procuring Causes of such abbreviation and change which hereafter we shall prosecute more fully it remains to tell you how this evil may in part be remedied and something regained that hath been lost and is still upon the losing side except recovered by a more diligent and prudent course And here I must premise a few things before I come to the point prescribing the Rule to walk by and means for attaining long life All the Creatures have their definite times
of duration allotted them by Nature some longer others a shorter term and this from the principles of their composition and seminality from whence they spring In the Mineral Family we find the longest durations being solid dense bodies of more simple natures and homogeneous do therefore preserve their Beings longest from ruine and dissolution Vegetables are of a shorter duration yet not all alike some preserve their Beings hundreds of years as the Cedar and Oak Others continue but a few years some a year Amongst the sensitive Creatures we find that several species have their peculiar durations which in the common course of nature are observed to continue some a longer Age others a shorter The Mineral is slowest in rising to maturity and perfection but continues longest in that state The Vegetable in the generality is quickest in the ascent to the top of perfection but keeps not its station long some whereof fade and wither every year but renew their verdure again at the Spring until a few years hath spent that seminal power and fertil blooming virtue The Sensitive Creatures and perfect Animals are slower in their rise to perfection which having attained stay but a while in that full strength do gradually descend again decline and perish So that all living Creatures by nature have their risings and settings and definite times fixed for their growth and duration From their beginning they have a gradual ascent until they have attained the vigour and exaltation of their Natures and having gained the top of their perfection they stay not long there but gradually descend again and are degraded of the honour and perfection of their Natures and tend to their ruine and dissolution Nor are Creatures limited alike to the same duration but do extend and are shortned variously according to their Principles and Foundation of Being as Nature hath furnished them with a provision permanent and sutable for such a duration and subsistence Now of all Creatures we find Man most uncertain in his being and continuance although the Age of Man be limited to sixty years and is most liable to alteration and a perishing state upon these four accounts First Because Man derives from his Parents by a seminal propagation and inherits the Diseases of their vitious depraved Natures radicated in him to which his own enormous acts being added do multiply and heighten the corruption of his Nature hence the succeeding Generations become more degenerated infirm diseased and consequently of shorter duration than the former Secondly For that the structure of his Body is the most wonderfully contrived of all the Creatures contains the greatest curiosity and variety of machination such admirable Conduits and Contrivances such Offices and places of elaboration subservient to each other and communicable that therefore this Machine is most difficult to keep in order and soonest put out of frame Thirdly In that he does require and use more variety of supports and necessary requisits to preserve and supply him and therefore more subject to errors failings and discomposure Fourthly Because Man wilfully carelesly or ignorantly does not regulate and govern himself according to the Law of Nature dictated to him but deviating from those Rules of preservation does discompose the regular Oeconomy of his Body and introtroduce various Diseases and disorders which precipitate Nature in the current and course of life that otherwise more equally and evenly would glide on and sometimes by violence offered to Nature in some strange unnatural actions and exorbitancies the life is forced out and death oft procured Now other Creatures are so tyed up to the Rule of Nature which they cannot but observe for their preservation both individual and specifick and have not a power of electing good and evil to themselves but naturally and spontaneously do prosecute that which is proper and conservative and avoid what is noxious But Man having a greater liberty by the prerogative of his rational Soul does make his choice and wanders amongst varieties both good and evil and often deceives himself chusing what is destructive to his Being So that breaking the Law of Nature which he ought to observe as Bounds and Rules to his actions making them sanative and preservative does on the contrary alter and change those necessary appointments and supports renders them destructive by his irregular incongruous use vitious customs and imprudent choice The most considerable things to be observed by Man as conducing and tending to the lengthening or shortning of his life according to their management and procurement well or ill do fall under these Heads Meat and drink place of abode sleep and watching exercise and rest excretions and retentions passions of mind all usages and customs In the moderation use and choice of these which particularly hereafter shall be handled consists the length and brevity of life per modum assistentiae and as causa sine qua non being auxiliary requisites and necessary supports of life appointed by Nature for the continuation assistance and preservation thereof But the length and brevity of life fontaliter radicaliter consists in the fundamental Principles and vital powers variously radicated and planted ab ortu in man's generation and fabrication But this being not in the choice and power of man to alter or change we shall prosecute upon the former Heads Man consisting of Soul and Body and this body compounded of heterogeneous and dissimilar parts destinated to various actions and offices dependent in Being and conservation will necessarily require variety of assistance and supply proportionable and suiting to their several purposes faculties properties and temperatures in matter manner times and order as well for their maintenance and sustentation in the integrity of their actions offices and duties as constitutional dispositions and Crases peculiarly conservative of themselves respectively and consequently of the whole And by the Law of Nature being subject to corruption and dissolution through the fragility of constitutive parts connexion and fabrication is bound to observe Rules Orders and Customs most consonant for preservation and continuance in Being Now if there be a disproportion or unfitness in the matter or quantum or irregularity in the manner times or order of the auxiliary requisites and conservatives contrary to what the Law or necessity of his Nature requires and commands there arise Distempers Ataxies and discord the praeludiums to ruine and dissolution And this body being in a continual flux and reflux conversant in vicissitudes and variations of opposites dissimilars contraries and privations as heat and cold siccity and humidity filling and emptying rest and motion sleeping and waking inspiration and exspiration and the like this body could not subsist amidst these various subalternations and changes if they were not bounded and regulated by due order of succession to fit and convenient times that they might not clash interfere and encroach upon each others priviledges due times and proprieties If heat exceeds the natural moisture dries up the spirits evaporate and the body withers
each other and conducing to the general design of the whole in a compleat order and exquisite method of contrivance promoting and moving one another in their distinct Offices Now if one Wheel goes too fast too slow or stops the rest that depend upon that motion also are disordered and move irregularly So is it in the Body of Man If the Stomach be clogged and the digestion sluggish the supply from thence will not come in due time to the other faculties to operate upon and if the Chyliferous matter sent from the Stomach be not well transmuted and qualified the rest of the digestive faculties cannot so well perform their task because the alimentary matter is not transmitted to them proper and sutable but imperfect aliene and degenerate Most men experimentally and sensibly know that meat and drink transgressing either in quantity or quality or unseasonably taken does abate and injure a good Stomach and depraves the digestion which defect redounds to the detriment of the whole and all the body suffers by it and every faculty in time will share in the prejudice So that of necessity there must be rules observed and bounds set in the use of these things without which mans body is soon put out of frame and the regular Oeconomy thereof discomposed and disordered To prove and illustrate this farther by instance fresh Air is necessary to ventilate the body and chear the spirits of man and he that is pent up within doors is deprived of that great enlivener and refresher of Nature but on the contrary he that is exposed abroad to the night Air is as much damaged as the other and both prove injurious and destructive So that although the open Air be good and necessary for the healthful being of Man yet not at all times not in any condition and upon any terms but sutable and convenient with the state of our bodies as Nature hath appointed for you and not otherwise So likewise for Exercise and Rest Method and Rule is to be observed for if there be not seasons allotted and a moderation used in these they both are destructive though in a contrary way and by different mediums To sleep when you should wake or wake when you should sleep are both injurious and impairing of health to invert the order of Nature by sleeping in the day and watching in the night is incongruous and unsutable with your bodies because it crosseth the designment of Nature When the Sun riseth the spirits of Men are then most apt and fit for Action are then most lively brisk and chearful in their functions but when the Sun sets and the Air is cloathed with darkness the spirits then begin to droop grow more dull and heavy incline to rest retirement and a cessation Now to spur up and rouze the spirits when they naturally would be taking their ease and respite or laying a clog upon them by your sluggishness and somnolent postures when Nature calls upon them for action by darting the glittering light through the Air with which they are affected and raised up these are great injuries and affronts to Nature in acting counter to her commands and institutions for which you must suffer the penalty and that is the forfeiting your health for this unnatural disobedience and these irrational courses These Precautions and Rules I will assure you are not our inventions to curb your darling inclinations and restrain you of your just liberty but they are the Institutions and Law of Nature enjoyned to be observed for your own preservation and well being and as bounds set to check your extravagant pernicious actions and all for the tuition and safety of your life and health and to preserve the regular harmony through the whole course of Nature And although it be an old saying as foolish as common Qui Medicè vivit miserè vivit He that lives strictly by rule lives miserably yet I must affirm the contrary grounded upon pure reason and the preceding discourse that he which does not observe the injunctions the due method and regular course of Nature does both shorten his life and takes away much of the pleasure of it by procuring an uncomfortable and unhealthy body I know Every of you would live long but especially in health you would fain continue and prolong your youth your beauty and ability of parts you are frighted at the thoughts of a wrinkled face or a restless bed an unwholsom diseased body and a decripid loathsom old Age But yet you will not avoid these evils that you so much fear you will not take the pains to prevent them and secure your self you rather take more pains and undergo more trouble to procure them than there can be in avoiding them nay you lose the true pleasure of your life to purchase these Inconveniencies But what those things are which so warily and chiefly you are to observe wherein consists your health and well-being have now been hinted but generally the due method course and cautions you are to take in the use of them particularly shall be handled in their due place and order following SECT V. The choice of Air and Places of Abode Shewing the benefits and injuries that arise from different Air. AIR is so necessary to Life that without it we cannot subsist which surrounding us about and being continually suckt and drawn in must needs affect the body with its conditions and properties and by observation you may find your Body by the various constitutions and changes in the Air to be variously affected well and ill disposed of which infirm parts are most sensible that they prognosticate before an alteration come The mind also by the mediation of the spirits is drawn into consent and hath its dispositions and variations from thence When the Air is close thick and moist the spirits are more dull heavy and indisposed but at the appearance of the Sun and a serene Skie the Spirits are unfettered vigorous and active the mind more chearful airy and pleasant The Spirits are of an aetherial Nature and therefore do much sympathize with the present constitution and change of Air for from the Air drawn in by the motion of the vital parts are the vital spirits ventilated and the blood volatized therefore the pureness of the Air makes much for the purity of the spirits and mass of blood A gross impure and noysom Air obtunds and deads the spirits makes a slow Pulse obstructs the Pores and hinders ventilation generates superfluous humors and causeth putrefaction A serene sweet thin Air perfumes and purifies an unwholsome body cherisheth the heart makes a lively pulse and much enliveneth the vital spirits rarifies and volatizeth a gross coagulate blood opens the pores for transpiration of putrid and offensive vapours acuates and sharpens the Appetite and helps digestion The best Air and most agreeable to temperate bodies is in temperate Climates for heat cold wet and dry not subject to sudden and violent changes as in some parts of America
and other Countries very frequent not gross and turbulent infected with putrid vapours and noxious exhalations from stinking Ditches Lakes Bogs Carrions Dunghills Sinks and Vaults for which causes great Cities and the adjacent places are not so healthful nor the people so long liv'd Change of Air sometimes is very necessary for the conservation of health and the recovery of it declining and lost for temperate bodies by an intemperate Air shall gradually and in time become intemperate intemperate bodies by the contrary intemperate Air shall be reduced to temperature at least shall conduce much and be very Auxiliary for the reduction Therefore bodies declining from exact temperature are best preserved in that Air opposite to their declensions as cholerick hot and dry bodies in a moist and cool Air Phlegmatick cold and moist bodies in a dry and warm Air. It is not therefore of small moment in what place you live and more especially such who labour of or are more subject to any pectoral infirmity for the Lungs being of so tender a substance and porous continually drinking in the Air are most apt to receive impressions from it according to the properties it is pregnant with and infested and many diseases of the breast arise from this sole cause and many exasperated by it and continued Hence it is that Asthmatick Phthisical and Consumptive persons shall not be cured in some places but may have cure in another Be cloathed according to the clemency season and temperature of the Air your Age and habit of body Lean thin bodies and pervious corpora rarae texturae and whose skin are loose and lax may wear thicker cloathing because such are more perspirable do magis emittere transpirare and are also more penetrable and subject to injury of the Air. Fat and fleshy people and whose bodies are solid firm and hard are more impenetrable and impervious and may wear thinner Garments Infants and Children lately cherished in the stove of the Womb being of tender soft bodies are easily exposed to the prejudice of the Air. Vigorous youth and middle Age being accustomed to all weathers whose spirits abounding do strongly resist and keep out the assaults and injuries of an offensive Air may best indure hardship Old Age whose natural heat is abated and spirits exhausted stands in need of good defensatives against external cold and to cherish internal heat Observe the seasons and changes of the Air and be then most careful for at such times you are in most danger to exchange health for sickness hence it is that Spring and Autumn abounds most with Diseases the Air then assuming new properties opposite to its former constitution sets new impressions upon our bodies which occasions the various aestuations and turgid formenting of humours producing divers symptoms according to the variety of their nature the organical difference office and constitution of the several parts The Sun being risen and the Air clear open your Chamber-Windows that the fresh Air may perfume your Room and the close Air and inclosed Vapours may go forth Bad smells and putrid vapours being drawn in with the Air are very injurious to the Lungs and vital parts contaminating the spirits and impressing upon the Crasis of those parts their tetrid nature are oftentimes the original of a Consumption and if the Lungs be weak and infirm are more apt to receive prejudice than others But fragrant smells refresh and chear the vital spirits and are very wholsome breathing forth the vertue of those things from whence they do proceed Be not late abroad nor very early for before Sun rising and after setting the Air is not so good being then infested with noxious vapours until the radiant influence of the Sun dispels and purifies and those whose custom it is to be often abroad at such times are most frequently molested with Rheums and Rheumatick Diseases of which their declining years will more evidently manifest the prejudice Likewise in moist foggy dark weather 't is better being within than abroad and if it be a cool season good fires and fragrant fumes are then both pleasant and very wholsom Be frequent abroad in the Fields when a clear Skie invites you forth and let the fresh Air fan you with its sweet breath but more especially in the morning the Air is softer and more pleasant than your Bed and sure I am far more wholsom Temperie Coeli corpusque Animusque juvatur Ovid. In the choice of places to inhabite and dwell in these things are to be considered principally First The Climate that it be temperate and suting with the nature of the person for some persons may agree well with one Climate with which others cannot cold and moist bodies agree best with a warm and dry Air hot and dry bodies with a moist and cooler Air. Secondly The situation of the place and soyl is to be noted for as much as low wet and marish Lands are not so wholsom to inhabit as gravelly Plains and dry Highland Countreys Thirdly In relation to Country and City regard is to be had and here the Country does prevail over the City for Health and is to be accounted the best place of abode The continual smoke and annoyances that are inseparable from great Cities make those places to abound more with infirm and sickly people Fourthly The Waters that supply a place do make it better or worse to live in as they are good or bad Water being of so constant and general use is much to be regarded though little taken notice of and procures many diseases from the variety of its nature being impregnated variously from the Earth it passeth through or from accidents that happen to change it from its natural properties by the admixture of any filth carrion or what else shall fall into it and therefore River Waters that lie open to such injuries are much to be suspected of unwholsomness And ill water is a great procurer of the Scurvy in many places as Pliny relates that Caesars Army by drinking of bad Water but a few days had the symptoms of that Disease The commendations of a place in relation to health and long life are these A temperate Air dry serene and clear Champain or high Lands a gravelly dry soyl watered with pure good Springs remote from the Sea Lakes or Marshes not frequented with unwholsom Winds and stormy blasts So considerable is the Climate and Air in relation to our Being that it not only changeth and altereth our Bodies but also our Minds are wrought upon by it in as much as the wit inclinations and manners of a people are different upon this score And for long Life we find that in some Countries the people are longer lived by much than in other and this from the wholsomness of the place and purity of the Air therefore the choice of places to live in is of great concernment and much to be regarded by those whose Fortunes permit them to pitch in any place for the advantages of
be eaten by the weaker and tender stomachs without hurt being of a good kind and in their prime The old white Pease are hard in digestion and windy but if they be of a good sort that will boil soft and mealy are then very acceptable to many and not hurtful moderately eaten they are a strong food and very good for strong stomachs SECT XI Of Roots Herbs and Flowers for food Their Qualities and right use CArrots yield a moist cooling and temperate nourishment light of digestion and are very wholesom Turneps are hot and moist affording much nourishment and easily concocted being of a good kind sweet and not strong in tast are then agreeable with most stomachs soluble to the belly and wholesom food Parsneps are temperate in heat and not so moist as the Turnep or Carrot but give a good strong nourishment to the Body and are convenient for all that love them Potato is something like to the Parsnep in qualities but excels it in nourishing and strengthning the body are wholesom and agreeable to all Constitutions Raddish is hot and moist excites the appetite but affords little nutriment and is difficult in digestion not to be commended except to such as are troubled with gravel in the Kidneys it is something diuretick and cleansing those parts Sparagus being pleasant in the mouth and light of digestion is accounted a dainty Dish and reputed a cleanser of the Reins and wholesom but since it makes the urine of those that eat it to have a strong savour I much suspect its goodness and have reason to believe this ill scent to arise from a corrupt transmutation of the Sparagus and not a pre-existing matter sent forth to advantage Artechocks are temperately hot and dry very nourishing and not unwholesom for the weaker sort being soon digested and become restaurative Cabbage and Colewort are temperate loosening something windy and not easy of digestion but those who are lovers of them and have good stomachs finding no trouble in digestion nor belching afterwards may eat thereof and please themselves but tender stomachs had better forbear Coleflower although it hath some affinity with the Cabbage yet it is more wholesom pleasanter in tast lighter of digestion more nutritive and no way hurting the body Spinage is cold and moist and may be eaten in sallad boiled or with broth good for hot costive bodies but not convenient for cold phlegmatick and waterish Constitutions Sage is hot and dry affording no nourishment but gives a relish and very wholsome good for the Head and Nerves and may well be used in the Kitchen when it is proper Lettuce is cold and moist yet not offensive to the stomach nor hurtful to the body it allays the heat and acrimony of cholerick humours and disposeth to sleep such as are too vigilant and have hot dry brains it may profitably be used at convenient times by such bodies as require it in hot seasons of the year and by hot Constitutions Parsley is hot and dry diuretick and opening gives no nourishment but seasons and recommends meat to those that love its tast and is not unwholesom Rosemary is hot and dry and yields no nourishment but is good for the Head and Nerves and all cold Diseases of the Brain and may well be used in the Kitchen when there is occasion Purslane is cold and moist to be eaten in sallad by cholerick stomachs and hot dry Bodies to allay the intemperature of the bloud and better it is if it be pickled than not Burrage and Bugloss are temperately hot and moist cordial and cheering the spirits good for hypochondriack and melancholy persons hurtful to none the custom therefore of putting these into a glass of Wine is very good Sorrell is cold and dry very wholesom for the body and agreeable to the stomach by its pleasant tartness it cools the bloud contemporates choler and allays feavourish heat Sorrel and Lettuce together make a good Sallad Burnet is hot and dry and by its restrictive quality does strengthen the stomach it cheers the heart and drives away melancholy being put into a glass of Wine makes it relish well and increaseth the vertue of the liquor Succory is cooling drying opening and cleansing an excellent Hepatic Herb very good for those that are troubled with obstructions and heat of the Liver to be used in Broths or otherwise in Medicine Spear-Mint is hot and dry in the second degree it is a great strengthner of a weak nauseating stomach or subject to vomiting it is pleasant in smell and tast refreshing the Brain and comforting the Heart invites the appetite and helps digestion correcting the crudities that flat and depress the stomach Clary is hot and dry accounted a strengthner of the back and good to stop spermatick issuing used by some for that purpose to be fryed with Eggs but i never found any considerable effects nor do I recommend it in such Cases Tansy is hot and dry bitter in tast but very acceptable to the stomach and abstersive it is very wholesom in food or physick and therefore that Dish called a Tansie is to be esteemed as a choice dainty but the juice of this Herb is not to be wanting in it Marygold-Flowers are moderately hot and dry they chear the spirits and comfort the Heart are very wholesom and agreeable to all bodies but chiefly beneficial for melancholick and drooping spirits to be used in broth or stewed meats to which they make an addition for goodness Pennyroyall is hot and dry in the third degree it cleanseth and strengthens the stomach expels Wind provokes Urine and a great opener of obstructions it is a strong savory Herb but pleasant and very wholesom especially for cold phlegmatick and crude waterish bodies Violet-leaves are cold and moist good for hot and costive Bodies to cool and loosen the Belly and may be used in Sallad Broth or otherwise Thyme is hot and dry pleasant in smell and tast it helps a weak stomach and gives a good relish to meat or broth which a good Cook knows very well Savory is hot and dry in the third degree of a strong penetrating but fragrant scent and of a biting tast it attenuates opens and discusseth corrects a crude watery stomach gives a good season to meat or pottage as its name imports Marjerome is delightful in smell and tast no less pleasing to the stomach and profitable for a weak head very wholesom for the body and hurtful to none I have now given a short but useful account of the virtues and qualities of the most and chiefest Herbs used in Cookery whereby every one may appoint or make choice of such to be used in dressing their meat as their nature and condition of body does most require and refuse those that although good and wholesom in themselves yet not proper and fit for some persons in such a state of body And although much more might have been said in the medicinal use of some of them yet this is
leaden pipes or wooden are not wholesom and therefore Cistern Water is not good being alienated from its native goodness and tinctured by the lead Considering then the conditions of Water used both for drink and dressing of meat in many or most Cities and great Towns of England especially here in London we need not wonder that the Scurvey is so predominant lying under the inconvenience and injuries of bad Water which is none of the least procurers of that Disease Lakes Ponds or Pits and such like standing Waters are not wholesom for the Body Snow water and Ice put into drink to cool it is practised in some hot Countries and here in England it is used by some in Summer time being kept under ground for this purpose but it is a pernicious custom And now I pass on to another sort of Drink of frequent use and great reputation in the World for many hundred years and that is Wine Wine is an excellent liquor allowed and given by the Creator for the use of Man but not as a common and daily drink but for special uses and occasions requiring that is to cheer the drooping mind and refresh the decaying infirm Body for which it being seasonably and discreetly used is very helpful and beneficial to mankind Wine is both aliment and medicament a great refresher of decayed nature it nourisheth the Body and exhilarates the mind 't is a good cordial it strengthens the stomach and disposeth to sleep it restores the spirits dejected or weak and is helpful to old Age. But on the contrary if it be immoderately unseasonably and constantly used it turns much to the prejudice of Body and mind by subverting the natural vital heat alienating the crases of the parts and offending the Nerves and farther the intemperate use of Wine disturbs the brain and lessens the understanding dulls the wit and raseth the memory Vino forma perit vino corrumpitur aetas Propert. There are several sorts of Wine differing much from one another in goodness and worth so likewise in tast colour consistence and smell being of the growth of several Countries and places differing in Climate or soil which to examine and compare by a particular and exact account of each would be too tedious and not so necessary and useful for the Reader therefore briefly and more generally you may make choice of Wine thus as may best sute with the nature and condition of your Body The Wines most usual and frequently drank here in England are Sack White Wine Claret and Rhenish The white thin and acid Wines are attenuating abstersive and diuretick as the French White Wine and the Rhenish The sweet Wines are most nourishing cordial and comfortable and of these the thick dark Wines as the Muskadell nourish more than the thin clear Wines as the Canary The austere and rough Wines as Claret and red Wine are restrictive The strong spirituous Wines are apt to offend the head by raising fumes and vapours but temperate and smaller Wines will not cloud the Brain and are better for a frequent use But if Wine be too strong or to supply the place of common drink and used as Beer for quenching thirst then it is best to dilute and mix it with Water two three or four parts to one of Wine and allay it to what temperature you please as your body does best require Wine more often offends the Body by quantity than quality if it be natural and pure from the grape and more suffer by the adulteration and abusive mixture than by the natural ill properties decays and degeneration of the Wine in it self Malaga Sack is accounted by some to be restaurative and appointed for that purpose to weakly and consumptive people but since it is heavy and clogging upon the stomach I cannot recommend it for that intention but prefer others before it Canary Sack is much before the Malaga for richness and goodness and more agreeable to the stomach also nourishing and very refreshing to nature Sherry Sack is a wholesom and good stomach Wine and better at meat than any other Sack being abstersive and hard not a satiating Wine but does whet and provoke the stomach to eating and also helps forward digestion Rhenish Wine is a very wholesom liquor penetrating opening and provoking urine fittest for fat and full bodied people but lean spare and thin persons will agree better with feeding and fatning Wines as Canary Muskadell Tent and such like White Wine is searching cleansing and opening and comes nearest to Rhenish in qualities but is inferiour in goodness but neither of them are good and rather injurious to such as are molested with arthritick pains and rheumatism or otherwise troubled with any defluxion of a sharp serous or waterish humour Claret is fit for meals being a good stomach Wine for the roughness and gentle astriction that is in it which is pleasing to the stomach The Greek Wine Muskadell Tent and such like nourishing Wines being luscious generous and rich in spirit are to be used as cordials and restauratives and not for common drinking Having declared the nature and right use of Wine we proceed now to other liquors used as Drink but of a lower and inferiour rank made also of Fruit which is Cyder and Perry Cyder is the juice of Apples which by Fermentation and due ordering is made fit for keeping and then for Drink This sort of liquor is better or worse as the fruit is of which it is made and from the skill and care of the maker which contributes not a little to its goodness but if it be made of pickt fruit of the best sort not mingled Apples it produceth a choice drink when ripe and fit for drinking coming near to Wine in goodness being strong brisk and clear Cyder for a diversion and change not a common and constant drink may well be used and is very wholesom and good especially for hot dry and costive Bodies and for such it is proper Physick to cool moisten and relax the Belly that is bound up but for cold constitutions phlegmatick windy and waterish stomachs that are too laxative and weak in body for such it is not convenient but rather injurious Perry is produced of Pears after the same manner as Cyder of Apples and is very like in qualities if it be of the best fruit and well made and will serve for the same purposes and require the same cautions that I need not repeat But the common and most usual drinks with us are Beer and Ale Beer made of water malt and hops is very various and in several Countries and Places here in England the Beer hath a different tast one from the other as if they were not made of the same ingredients And this does proceed sometimes from the difference of water or the malt or goodness of the hops or different quantity or Age of the Drink or the Cask or from the Art and management of the Brewer Which being subject to all these
casualties and variations from thence we must in reason imagine and conclude that our Bodies do likewise receive impressions and alterations from thence also Drink being of a diffusive nature soon spreads and is communicated to all parts of the Body and does tincture them with such properties and qualities it is pregnant with whether better or worse It is not then of mean concernment what drink we accustom our selves to and how choice we ought to be in our Drink for bad Drink is not only the disgust upon our Palate and a displeasure at present in drinking but it hath influence upon our Bodies for the future to alienate and pervert the fermenting and transmuting powers of the digestions and to introduce an unsound state of Body if the Drink be not pure and wholesome free from any smatch of ill But how oft you are injured upon this account you little know at least take little notice and regard but wonder at every appearance of a disease or discomposedness as if you had never been under the procuring causes of any distemper or morbifick change in the Body Hence it is that the water-drinkers have the advantage of all good fellows the strong Beer and the Ale drinkers but this by the way But supposing Beer to be well brewed all the ingredients good and of a fit age to drink when all these happen together which is but sometimes then Beer discreetly used may be good and wholesom for the Body To make up therefore the goodness of Beer these conditions are requisite It ought to be well boil'd and well hop'd clear and well setled not stale for that is injurious but tasting of the hop not strong for common drinking but at other times to refresh the Stomach and chear the Heart strong Beer may supply the place of Wine Ale though made of the same ingredients as Beer yet differs having a less quantity of Hops being more sweet smooth and pleasing to the Palate Ale in general is not so wholesom as Beer for that it is not so well boiled nor hop'd and will not keep so long but soon changeth and grows four yet in some parts of England as in the North the Ale is much better more pleasant and wholesomer brewed than in the Southern parts Ale is subject to the same casualties and abuse as Beer that what hath been said before may also be applied here Metheglin is a drink made of water honey some herbs and spice boiled and then set to ferment which being varied according to the will of the maker and no certain rule I cannot so well determine upon it but being well ordered a good drink may be made for variety to please a little sometimes Meath is something like to Metheglin being made of water but a less quantity of honey and is not so strong nor so much compounded but a simple innocent good Summer drink being abstersive and cooling provokes urine and keeps the body soluble Mum if it be right Brunswick is a hearty strengthning liquor and may safely be used sometimes by such as require strong drink whose bodies do like and agree well with it But our English Mum is not comparable to it and disparageth the other being too often sold for Brunswick Coffee is a Drink now much in use and therefore 't is seasonable to say something for whom it is good at least not prejudicial and for whom it is injurious Coffee excites and raiseth the animal spirits that are dull or inactive and puts them upon motion and is helpful to such as must be watchful for it prevents drowziness and heaviness and makes them more brisk in business the very scent of Coffee Powder affects the spirits so as to agitate and move them But then on the other hand most Coffee drinkers are smoakers that what advantage they gain by Coffee is lost by Tobacco for this by a narcotick property disposeth to sleep and rest and most people are dull and heavy after it but for the nature and effects of tobacco my Tract of the Scurvey will inform you The frequent and constant use of Coffee does make lean therefore proper for fat and corpulent people that would abate of their flesh and that are inactive and slothful but injurious to spare slender people and to them that are too watchful and make but short sleeps in the night also to such as are affected with a tremor a shaking and trembling of the head or hands or that are vertiginous An enemy to hot and cholerick Constitutions and whose bloud is depraved by adust melancholy Coffee then promotes it nor is Coffee a friend to Venus but rather disables Brandy is another drink in fashion of late years and some love Vsquehath and to keep doing Aqua vitae sometimes supplies their wants to sip on others tipple to excess of these spirits But these are pernicious Drinks to use commonly and in the way of good fellowship for they destroy the natural heat and change the crases of the parts and leave the Body chill and cold always requiring their constant help to warm the stomach which must needs be destructive to Health and opposite to long Life But in cases of necessity upon fainting or sudden weakness or oppression of spirits a fullness nauseousness or crude watering of the stomach upon such emergencies you may have recourse to these helps and blameless if you have no better to serve your need Accustom youth and strong stomachs to small drink but stronger drink and Wine may be allowed to the infirm weakly and aged for that it chears the spirits quickens the appetite and helps digestion moderately taken and this sometimes as occasion requires Drink whether it be wholesomer warmed than cold is much controverted some stiffly contending for the one and some for the other I shall rather chuse the middle way with limitation and distinction than impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health the observation of the one or the other There are three sorts of persons one cannot drink cold Beer the other cannot drink warm the third either You that cannot drink cold Beer to you it is hurtful cools the stomach and checks it much therefore keep to warm drink as a wholesom custom you that cannot drink warm Beer that is find no refreshment nor thirst satisfied by it you may drink it cold nor is it injurious to you you that are indifferent and can drink either drink yours cold until your stomach alters and requires it to be warm Therefore as there is variety in Palates and Stomachs liking and agreeing best with such kind of meats and drinks which to others are utterly disgustful disagreeing and injurious though good in themselves so is it in Drink warmed or cold what one finds a benefit in the other receives a prejudice from at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment under such a qualification because of the various natures particular appetitions and idiosyncratical
accounted mortal than the like arising from drunkenness because those perhaps depend upon malignant causes or such as by time are radicated in the body or from the defection of some principal part but the storm and discomposure arising from drunkenness as it is suddenly raised so commonly it soon falls depending upon benign causes if the drink be sound and a spirituous matter that lays not so great an oppression but inebriates the spirits so that they act very disorderly and unwontedly or by their soporiferous vertue stupefies them for a time until they recover their agility and regularity again But all this while I do not see that to be drunk once a month should prove good Physick all I think that can be said in this behalf is that by over-charging the stomach vomiting is procured and so carries off something that was lodged there which might breed Diseases This is a bad excuse for good fellows and a poor plea for drunkenness that for the gaining of one supposed benefit which might be obtained otherwise introduceth twenty inconveniences by it I do not like the preventing of one Disease that may be by procuring of one at the present certainly and many hereafter most probably Indeed if the Disease feared or that may be could be prevented no otherwise but by this drunken means then that might tolerate and allow it but there are other ways better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards than by over-charging it with strong drink and making the man to unman himself the evil consequents of which are many and the benefit hoped for but pretended or if any but very small and inconsiderable And although as I said before the drunken fit is not mortal and the danger perhaps not great for the present yet those drunken bouts being repeated the relicts do accumulate do debilitate Nature and lay the foundation of many chronick diseases Nor can it be expected otherwise but you may justly conclude from the manifest irregular actions which appear to us externally that the functions within also and their motions are strangely disordered for the outward madness and unwonted actions proceed from the internal impulses and disordered motions of the faculties which general disturbance and discomposure being frequent must needs subvert the oeconomy and government of humane Nature and consequently ruine the Fabrick of mans body The ill effects and more eminent products of ebriety are first A changing of the natural tone of the stomach and alienating the digestive faculty That instead of a good transmutation of food a degenerate Chyle is produced Common experience tells that after a drunken debauch the stomach loseth its appetite and acuteness of digestion and this belching thirst disrelish nauseating do certainly testifie yet to support nature as supposed and continue the custom of eating some food is received but we cannot expect from such a stomach that a good digestion should follow and it will be some days before the stomach recover its eucrasy again and perform its office well And if these miscarriages happen but seldom the injury is the less and sooner recompenced but by the frequent repetition of these ruinous practices the stomach is overthrown and alienated from its integrity Secondly An unwholsom corpulency and cachectick plenitude of body does follow or a degenerate macilency and a decayed consumptive constitution Great Drinkers that continue it long few of them escape but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body A Cacotrophy or Atrophy for if the Stomach discharge not its office aright the subsequent digestions will also be defective So great a consent and dependence is there upon the stomach that other parts cannot perform their duty if this leading principal part be perverted and debauched nor can it be expected otherwise for from this Laboratory and prime office of digestion all the parts must receive their supply which being not suteable but depraved are drawn into debauchery also and a degenerate state and the whole body fed with a vitious alimentary succus Now that different products or habits of body should arise from the same kind of debauchery happens upon this score As there are different properties and conditions of bodies so the result from the same procuring causes shall be much different and various Quicquid recipitur recipitur per modum recipientis One puffs up fills and grows hydropical another pines away and falls Consumptive from excess in drinking and this proceeds from the different disposition of parts for in some persons although the stomach be vitiated yet the strength of the subsequent digestions is so great from the integrity and vigour of those parts destinated to such offices that they act strenuously though their object matter be transmitted to them imperfect and degenerate and therefore do keep the body plump and full although the juices be foul and of a depraved nature Others ê contra whose parts are not so firm and vigorous that will not act upon any score but with their proper object does not endeavour a transmutation of such aliene matter but receiving it with a nice reluctance does transmit it to be evacuated and sent forth by the next convenient ducture or emunctory and from hence the body is frustrated of nutrition and falls away So that the pouring in of much liquor although it be good in sua natura does not beget much aliment but washeth through the body and is not assimilated But here some may object and think That washing of the body through with good Liquor should cleanse the body and make it fit for nourishment and be like good Physick for a foul body But the effect proves the contrary and it is but reason it should be so for suppose the Liquor whether Wine or other be pure and good yet when the spirit is drawn off from it the remainder is but dead flat thick and a muddy flegm As we find in the destillation of Wine or other Liquors so it is in mans body the spirit is drawn off first and all the parts of mans body are ready Receivers and do imbibe that limpid congenerous enlivener freely and readily but the remainder of greatest proportion that heavy dull phlegmy part and of a narcotick quality lies long fluctuating upon the digestions and passeth but slowly turns sowr and vitiates the Crases of the parts So that this great inundation and supposed washing of the body does but drown the faculties stupefie or choak the spirits and defile all the parts not purifie and cleanse And although the more subtile and thinner portion passeth away in some persons pretty freely by Vrine yet the grosser and worse part stays behind and clogs in the percolation A third injury and common manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking is An imbecillity of the Nerves which is procured from the disorderly motions of the Animal Spirits being impulsed and agitated preternaturally by the inebriating spirits of strong Liquors which vibration being frequent begets a habit and causeth a
trepidation of Members Thus you see the inconveniences and mischief that follows intemperate drinking but to promote this irregularity and great folly the rare Invention of Healths contributes not a little to the pouring down of strong liquor and makes them so earnest in remembring the health of others that they quite forget their own and are then very active to destroy it quite forgetting that drinking of Healths and healthful drinking are two things and inconsistent But drinking together is the signal of Friendship and to be made Drunk is the Character and Memento of a generous and hearty entertainment for most commonly drinking concludes the Feast when nature hath been tempted with varieties and perhaps over-charged therewith to add yet more weight the next folly is to fall upon drinking to inebriate and disturb the spirits to vitiate the fermentation and precipitate the meat out of the stomach before digestion be finished by a Floud of liquor that if you have escaped a surfeit of eating you shall not go away without a mischief by Drinking and thus your good Dinner is spoil'd and instead of being bettered by it you are the worse and your Friends kindness proves your prejudice Thus to the necessary uses of Drink appointed by nature we have invented other designments and made Drink to serve for pleasure profit wantonness and debauchery so that Drink which should help to support nourish and maintain the strength and vigour of nature is made an unhappy instrument to abuse and injure the Body by perverting and disordering the regular oeconomy thereof But instead of satisfying thirst and refreshing of nature some pour in a flood of liquor to drown the faculties and extinguish vitality and many their are that account it a pleasure to sop their souls in drink and some have drowned themselves by such intemperance The Cattle drink to satisfie thirst and then leave of drinking some men indeed do not drink like beasts but make themselves Beasts by drinking for being thereby deprived of their reason they act like to Brutes But of Drinking and Drunkenness we have reckoned up the evils we will not be so partial to smother the benefits but take all with you Drinking advanceth the revenue of excise and custom It makes Barly to bear a good price and helps the Farmer to pay his rent It keeps the Physician and Apothecary in employment and doubtless it adds considerably to their business Lastly It maintains a tap trade and too many live well by it Now whether Drinking ought to be promoted to forward these advantages and answer such ends with the destruction of Health abbreviation of Life and debauching the People I leave you to judge Drink for necessity not for bad fellowship especially soon after meat which hinders the due fermentation of the stomach and washeth down before digestion be finished but after the first concoction if you have a hot stomach a dry or costive body you may drink more freely than others or if thirst importunes you at any time to satisfie with a moderate draught is not amiss SECT XIV Exercise and Rest regulated and appointed promoting sanity and vivacity THat Exercise and due Motion seasonably used contributes to the preservation of Health and prolongation of Life will appear if we consider the great benefits that are procured by it First In general exercise raiseth the spirits and puts them upon vigorous action in all the Faculties Secondly It empties the stomach and promotes the appetite for the next meal the remainders after digestion that accumulate to clog the stomach are moved by Exercise and excited to pass away and being thus discharged of those relicts the appetite grows sharp and craves food very strongly Thirdly Exercise provokes expulsion of Excrements and suffers not any superfluous matter to lodge in the body For by the turgid motion of the spirits the common ductures and conveyances are dilated and expanded which together with the agitation of the body gives a ready and free passage to any feculent or excremental matter that ought not long to be retained Fourthly Exercise opens the Pores and gives a free transpiration which otherwise by too much rest are occluded and shut up contrary to the intention of Nature having appointed these vents and secret ways of evacuation to ventilate and cleanse the habit of the body which in a short time would be very foul and impure by congestion of superfluous humours if not purified and transpired by these exhaling Ports Fifthly Exercise promotes and adds much towards the nutrition of the body For this we find generally that active stirring people are more fresh in countenance more vegete and lively in spirit more firm and solid in flesh and stronger in their limbs than other persons that live a sedentary idle and sluggish life And that it should be so there is good reason in as much as exercise gives a free passage for nutriment to arrive at every member and part of the body and also excites the Archeus or ruling principle in each for a more vigorous assimilation and likewise does expedite and send away the superfluities of every digestion all which promotes and sets forward a good nutrition Exercises are various and commonly chosen as each person phansies or the Company invites as Dancing Running Ringing Tennis Hand-Ball Foot-Ball Riding Fencing Bowling with many others some whereof are purely pastime as those named others are necessary labours as Digging Sawing and such like Exercise is to be chosen such as sutes best with the Nature of each persons body Some require exercising of upper parts most others of the lower parts and some equally both those Exercises which generally are advantagious in using and stretching all the parts and which I prefer before others are Tennis Hand-Ball Fencing and Ringing Yet I would not impose upon any contrary to their inclination for in these cases that which is most delightful will probably prove most beneficial Observations and Cautions to be remembred in exercising are such as these 1. Exercise daily in the Morning chiefly with an empty stomach always and after excremental evacuation if you can procure it 2. Vary exercise according to the condition of your body and season of the year the stronger phlegmatick bodies and in cold Weather admit of stronger and swifter motions Cholerick hot bodies weak and the Summer season more mild and gentle 3. Be not violent in exercise nor continue it longer beyond a pleasure but desist with refreshment not a lassitude and weariness 4. Put on some loose garment until your body be cool and setled in its natural heat and temper the Pores being opened by exercise the cold is more apt to enter from whence a greater prejudice than you could expect benefit from your labour or pastime 5. Walk gently after Exercise and settle by degrees no sudden changes are suteable or profitable to Nature 6. Eat not until you be fully reduced to that temper and moderate heat as when you began and when the spirits
are retired to their proper stations By this rational course the advantages that will accrue to you are these Exercise rouseth dull inactive spirits gives ventilation opens obstructions by the motion attenuation and penetration of the subtile spirits agitates and volatiseth feculent subsiding humours abates superfluous moisture increaseth natural heat promotes concoction distribution and conveyance of aliment through the narrow Channels and Passages unto the several parts of the body procures excremental evacuations strengthens all the Members and preserves Nature long in her vigour and verdure Having set out the times for Exercise and Motion the remainder is allotted for Rest and Ease with such refections and repast as Nature requires Quod caret alterna requie durabile non est Ovid. Rest is as necessary to preserve Health and continue mans body in strength and vigour as Exercise These two although much opposite in themselves yet both in their order and seasons are very suteable and agreeable to humane Nature and both contribute to the being and long being of Man Nothing constant is liking and congruous with our Nature but vicissitude is most acceptable and delightful When the body is wearied with Labour then rest is refreshing and renews its strength but when satiated with rest does then thirst after motion and pleasant exercise Rest is a burthen if forced upon Nature longer than Nature does require and that is but for a short space Interdum quies inquieta est quoties nos male habet inertia sui impatiens Sen. So that the due timeing of Rest and Motion and limiting them to their hours and seasons most agreeable and delightful to humane Nature is that which preserves him in Health and prolongs his Being Avoid idleness and a sluggish sedentary life for want of due action and wholesom motion the body like standing Waters degenerates and corrupts If Rest exceeds the vigour of Nature is abated digestion not so good distribution of aliment to the several parts retarded and impedited by reason of an obstructed foul body excrementitious superfluities not freely transmitted and emitted the spirits dulled and all the faculties of the body and mind heavy and slow to action Ignavia corpus hebetat labor firmat SECT XV. Sleep and Watching Limited and Cautioned THE Life of Man being conversant in vicissitudes spends its whole course in these two different states Sleep and Watching the one appointed for Rest and Ease the other for Action and Labour If he were constant in the first his life were but the shadow of Death not worth the naming Nemo dum dormit alicujus est pretii non magis quam si non viveret Quidam If in the latter he could not hold out long but be tired and worn out Therefore Nature hath wisely contrived that man should not continue long in either but should be transient from one to the other and weave out his life by these short intervals and changes Watching Action and Motion Sleep Rest and Cessation these are equally requisite for our well-being So that these two variations relieving one another both become a defence and support of humane life Sleep is a placid state of body and mind bringing refreshment and ease to both Sleep takes off the Body from action and the Mind from care thought and business and gives a cessation and quiet interval from their Labour That sleep may prove most advantagious answering the intentions and designment of Nature it must be regulated in these four particulars the Time when and the Limits how long the Place where and the Manner how The Time most proper and fit for Sleep and according to the appointment of Nature is the Night when most of the Creatures also do take their rest At the shutting up of the day and the Sun departed from the Horizon the spirits are not so active and lively but incline to a cessation and then it is fit to give them their repose and rest and not constrain them longer upon duty In the morning again at the rising of the Sun they are fresh brisk and agile fit for motion and action and then they are no longer to be chained up in somnolent darkness but to be set at liberty and enjoy the bright light which chears the spirits and is a great enlivener to them Turpis qui alto sole semisomnis jacet Cujus vigilia medio die incipit Sen. Avoid day-sleeps as a bad custom chiefly fat and corpulent bodies but if your spirits be tired with much business and care or by reason of old age debility of Nature extream hot weather labour or the like that dissipates the spirits and enervates then a moderate sleep restores the spirits to their vigour again and is a good refreshment but rather take it sitting than lying down Night watching and late sitting up tires and wasts the animal spirits by keeping them too long upon duty debilitates Nature changeth Youth and a fresh florid countenance heats and dries the body for the present in time it abateth natural heat breeds Rheumes and Crudities and most injurious to thin lean bodies But go early to sleep and early from sleep that you may rise refreshed lively and active not dulled and stupid For length and continuance Moderate sleep is best it refresheth the spirits fortifies and increaseth vital heat helps concoction gives strength to the body pacifies anger calms the spirits and gives a relaxation to a troubled mind But immoderate sleep dulls the spirits injurious to a good wit and memory fills the head with superfluous moisture and clouds the brain retains excrements beyond their due time to be voided and infects the body with their noxious fumes and vapours an enemy to beauty and changeth the fresh flower of Youth Concerning the place for sleeping take these cautions First That you do not expose your self to the open Air for in the time of sleep Nature is not so well able to defend the body from external injuries of the Air but lies more open to such assaults being off her guard and retired to Rest Know also that it is a bad custom to sleep upon the ground as many in the Summer season do use to their prejudice and those whose conditions of life necessitate them to it as Souldiers although for the present they escape the mischief yet afterwards most are made sensible of the injury by Aches stifness or weakness of Limbs and many other infirmities that it procures Sleep not in any damp place Vault or Cellar a ground Chamber especially unboarded a new washt Room or new plaistered but chuse a high Room dry sweet and well aired free from smoke and remote from any noise Let your Bed be soft but not to sink in which sucks from the body exhausts and impairs strength a Quilt upon a Feather-Bed is both easie and wholesom Be careful that your Bed be clean sweet and well aired for Bedding receives the vapours and sweaty moisture that comes forth from bodies lying in them which if they be
infirmity or complaint does follow And therefore it much behoveth Women to have a special regard that this course of Nature be regular according to each persons propriety of body for all have them not alike nor is it to be expected and when it happens otherwise a due course is to be taken to reduce them into order and procure them aright This Flux ariseth from a redundance and is granted to Women for conception-sake that they might both nourish the foetus in the Womb and have sufficient to supply their own bodies Therefore when there is no conception Nature hath appointed a menstrual evacuation to spend the over-plus this way during her capacity of having Children and when that time is past Nature takes up and makes no such provision and then this evacuation ceaseth SECT XVII The four Constitutions or different variation of Bodies distinguished THat the Condition Properties and Habit of Bodies do much differ one from the other and also the same Body by time doth vary and alter much from what it was is that which I need not insist on the proof every one almost will confess the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is convinced of this truth But how this comes to pass and the reasons of this difference and variation are not unanimously agreed upon but great dissenting about the matter The Galenists do comprise the diversity of bodies under four Constitutions Sanguine Phlegmatick Cholerick and Melancholick And this they will have to arise from the difference of bodies in mixtion according to the different proportions they receive of the four Elements participating more of some than the other The Chymical Philosophers some of them will have the difference of bodies to assurge out of three Principles Sal Sulphur and Mercury Others increase that number and will have them five Spirit Salt Sulphur Water and Earth But I must not now ingage in the controversie between the Chymists and Galenists or make another party to oppose both but reserve that as more proper for a Polemical Tract This Work being not intended controversal but Canonical I therefore pass on to state the Matter These four terms of Sanguine Cholerick c. although I do not adhere to them in the common acceptation and in every point as the Galenists use them yet they being so familiar and well known to such for whom chiefly this work is intended I shall retain these names with distinction and limitation to serve our present purpose rather than impose new words upon you not so well understood I do not therefore understand by Phlegm Choler c. that every body is composed of these four humours as their constitutive parts resulting from proportionate and disproportionate mixture and combination of the four Elements But that persons may participate of or abound with a degenerate humour and that the succulencies of the body may incline to such a condition affine and analogous or having such properties as that which is assigned to and called Phlegm Choler c. may well be asserted and we may call them by such names But you must also take notice that the degenerate matter in mans body is so various that you must not think to reduce all such depraved Juices exactly to these three heads of Choler Phlegm and Melancholy and if you add twice three more the number would not be sufficient But since there are not peculiar appellations to distinguish all precisely by better have some general terms than none The variation of bodies in relation to Temperament Habit and Constitution does arise immediatè from the variation of digestions and the different products from thence so that one and the same person shall by time be of different constitutions according as the functions of the body are performed well or ill The changing or establishing of Constitutions procatarcticè does depend upon subjection and obedience to the Diaetetick Rules As every one is ordered prudently and regularly or negligently and incongruously shall be disposed to this or that Constitution If a man live idle plentifully feeding indulging himself in raw Fruits and sleeps much this disposeth him to be Phlegmatick that is his digestions shall not be so good and there will be crude relicts abounding such as are called Phlegm If a man be of an active cogitative spirit eager in business giving himself little rest accustomed to Wine and high seasoned Meats This manner of life fires and heats the body the Juices then will not be so mild temperate and balsamick but acrid hot and sharp and this person then may be said to be of a cholerick constitution or condition of body If a fresh sanguine person of a pure wholesom body be oppressed with care and grief live a sedentary life or too much given to study and serious contemplation and feed grosly This course of life shall change and alter the best constitution the sanguine brisk airy person shall by these means be of a dull heavy disposition and sad mind the body also shall degenerate from its purity and the humours become more fixed and feculent The Soul being the great Spring or Wheel that keeps all the functions in motion upon which they do depend primò principaliter as the Fountain of all Vital Actions If this be dejected and taken off its speed the functions are then performed very heavily as if weights and clogs were hung upon them and then the elaboration of food is not well performed nor a pure alimentary Juice produced but a degenerate succus of a heavy oppressing nature not duly fermented by the Spleen dyscrasyed by the preceding Causes from whence a melancholy constitution is begotten and may so be denominated for distinction The diversity of Constitutions being thus understood we may make use of and retain these distinguishing terms at this time to serve the business in hand since they are so familiar by use and easie to be apprehended by such for whom this is intended But although I can close with them in relation to this purpose I am now upon to order and appoint a Diaetetick Regiment for different bodies yet I think them not of that concernment for a Physician to tye himself strictly to their observance in the designment of Cures these notions being too superficial and remote from the quiddity essence and spring of the Disease are but Characteristical and Signal to note how and which way the vital Powers do deviate and swerve from their integrity are but the Producta Morbi the Products and Effects separable and the Disease may remain behind Wherefore I cannot allow them as they are severally injoined in the Methodus Medendi for indications to sute Purgatives electivè and other Medicines to by peculiar appropriations nor concur with some Hypotheses that are founded upon this Doctrine by the Galenists to steer them in their Therapeuticks which indeed runs them upon great errors in the Cure of most Diseases being so nice in temperaments humours and qualities and eying them so much that they
neglect the spring from whence they do arise and where the greatest stress of Cures do lie Morbi in initiis vitalibus radicem habent And although I have distinguished food for several constitutions or conditions of body as most proper and fit for them and commonly most agreeable and appetible yet I do not thereby strictly enjoin or restrain any one of a dissenting appetite from some things greatly coveted and suteable by experience although appointed for another person of a different constitution but that every person seeing the general Rule may something be guided thereby and examining his peculiar propriety of Body undiscernable to others whether it will comply freely or with reluctance In such case where there is a refusal of this or that as not suting but disgustful you are not to impose upon your Nature forcibly though injoined by the general Rule But where you are at a stand in things indifferent what to chuse when either will comply and sute your appetite then follow the Rule as advantagious Moreover the strong robust bodies active and laborious are not so strictly enjoined to observance as tender weak bodies which soon are discomposed and altered by ill diet or that is incongruous for their condition of body If a person have a cold waterish Phlegmatick Stomach those Meats and Drinks and Sauces are not so agreeable and requisite for him as will well agree and sute with a Cholerick hot and dry parching Stomach A Phlegmatick man most commonly takes no delight in Milk and Whey cold Meats and cooling Drinks or cooling Sauces but he loves seasoned hot Meats strong Drinks Spices and hot Herbs to make his Meat savoury and acceptable to his Stomach But the Cholerick Man shall delight in the other and they shall sute best with him being temperately and discreetly used So that a Diaetetick Regiment well appointed and observed is physical to discrasyed and distempered bodies to contemperate and allay the luxuriance of some predominant Humour and something dispose the faculties to produce the alimentary Juices of another nature which by time will alter and change the constitution or condition of Body from what it was and reduce it nearer to what it ought to be SECT XVIII The sanguine Constitution or purest state of Body how generated and preserved THis Constitution does result from the integrity of the faculties and due Crases of the Parts performing their offices rightly When Food is well elaborated and transmuted in such manner as is proper for each digestion then a good constitution and good habit of body is established The Mass of blood then hath its pure tincture and all the liquors of the body their peculiar properties suteable to the intentions of Nature But if the Crases of the Parts be perverted by a spontaneous defection and imbecillity of the faculties or otherwise procured to irregularity by bad food intemperance and the Diaetetick Rules not observed then the alimentary Juices do degenerate from their purity the mass of Blood and nervous liquor are depraved the constitution and whole habit of body altered and changed for the worse The sanguine person enjoys the best state and condition of body does not abound or is molested with crude Phlegmatick or acrid Cholerick Juices or otherwise degenerate but hath the succulencies of body in their right and proper natures as is most fit for every Vessel and part of the body hence it is that this person is more fresh temperate lively and florid of a more pleasant mind and good disposition having pure blood and other good Juices to supply the Body from whence the spirits are generated both plentifully and of a good extraction This State and Constitution of Body is best preserved and continued so from degeneration by a good Diaetetick Regiment disposing all the requisite supports of Life Customs and Actions whatsoever that they be moderate seasonable and suteable to such Natures contributing their assistance wholly and not being any ways detrimental by their ill management The Sanguine Person will continue long in that condition and good state of Body by a due observance of Dyet Exercise and Rest Sleep and Watching Excretions and Retentions passions of Mind For any of these irregular and unsuteable will alter and change the best tempered body into some other depraved condition answerable to their Causes as the intemperate Air of a hot Climate or sudden change of Weather not regarded violent and unseasonable Exercise night-watchings ill-dyet c. introduce a depraved alteration and degeneration of the blood and therefore most commonly sickness soon follows such injurious Courses I might here forbid the smoaking of Tabaco the common Purgatives falsly denominated but rather and more properly Corruptives which stamp an ill impression upon the parts and vitiate alimentary Juyces of the Body but the injuries procured from Tabaco and these Drugs are declared at large in my Tract of the Scurvy Therefore I need not repeat here For the Election and Choice of Food for quantities and due times in Eating and Drinking for the choice of Air and place of Abode for Exercise Sleep c. consonant and most agreeable to this constitution and best state of Body are to be sought in the general Hygiastick Rules before-mentioned which are most proper and applicable to this state and condition of Body as being the Rule or Standard to measure others by And by how much others vary from this temperature and good condition of Body by so much are they to be accounted intemperate and deviating from integrity and do therefore require some particular Rules or Exemptions from the general to regulate them apart because bodies in a right and good state are not to be governed by the same strictness of Law but must have some allowance and exceptions which shall be observed in the particular constitutions following SECT XIX The Phlegmatick Constitution managed for a reduction THE Phlegmatick Person is such whose nature is not so vigorous and acute in the digestive faculties and makes a transmutation of food not so perfect as the Sanguine but something crude and raw This Constitution abounding with superfluous moisture and being cooler in temperature except upon occasions distempered and the Archeus disturbed commonly hath a slower Pulse not so lively active and brisk as the Sanguine person prone to sleep and ease of colour paler by hot things benefited by cold things prejudiced And thus it is by reason the vital powers are remiss and sluggish or perverted and the several functions of the body not performed vigorously and compleatly which ariseth from an innate disability or irregularity and disregard to the Diaetetick rules Now this Constitution of body being fallen a degree from the integrity of Nature and swerving from the best condition and state of body which is the Sanguine and finding by these Characters how Nature is defective and which way declining You ought so to order all your actions and customs as may tend to the rectifying of this deficiency and be
auxiliary for a reduction to the best state at least prevent what may succeed worse and stop the increase And herein it will be no small advantage to know what is assisting and helpful to Nature is this case and what is injurious Meats agreeable and convenient for this condition of body are such as be light and digest well because the Stomachs ferment is not so acute yet if the Stomach covets what is not of facil digestion let it be made savoury and seasoned And then a Phlegmatick raw stomach may better venture upon such But Brawn Pig Goose Duck Water-fowl and such like are not agreeable to a Phlegmatick Stomach Also Eeles fresh Herrings Makerel Lobster fresh Salmon Sturgeon are injurious and difficult to be digested But if you must please your palate drink Wine with these meats for a corrective Let your dyet be warm Meats oftner roast than boyled Butter Oyl and Honey is good for you Mustard Salt and Spices are necessary for your use especially with meats of slow digestion and that abound with much moisture and are apt to clog the Stomach Refuse Milk and Milk Meats Curds new Cheese Butter-milk and Whey Olives Capers Broom buds Sampire are good Sauce also Garlick Onions Leeks in Broths seasonings or Sauces for a relish but not raw Refrain cold Herbs and Sallads as Lettuce Purslan Violet-leaves c. except Sorrel which although cold yet a sharpner of the appetite but freely use Mint Sage Rosemary Time Marjerome Parsley Penny-royal and such hot Herbs Abstain from raw Fruits Apples Pears Plums Cucumbers Mellons Pumptions c. But you may eat new Wall-nuts Filberds Almonds blanched Ches-nuts Fistick-nuts Dates Figs Rasins Drink strong Beer more frequently than small and sometimes Sack Not French Wine if you be Rheumatick Indulge not your self in lying long in Bed or Afternoon-sleeps and too much Rest and Ease they dull the spirits increase flegm and superfluous moisture But frequent Exercise and moderate abstinence in Meat and Drink are great preservatives of your Health Chuse a warm Air and dry Soil remote from Waters the best place for your Abode Hot Baths are profitable seasonable and moderate Venus a friend the former cherisheth the spirits opens the pores for a transpiration and emission of superfluous moisture the latter suscitates and raiseth the spirits alleviates nature and helps Concoction SECT XX. The Cholerick Constitution altered and allayed THE Cholerick Person is more hot and dry than the Phlegmatick eager and precipitate in action froward hasty and angry lean of body and slender the Veins big a hard Pulse and quick of colour pale or swarthy propense to waking and short sleeps subject to Feavers or febrile aestuation upon small occasions That some bodies are in this state and condition is apparent and certain but whether by innate Principles so disposed or otherwise procured and adventitious we will not controvert here but shall proceed as granted that a Diaetetick Regiment well or ill managed shall make this person or condition of body better or worse Wherefore I advise such to these observations Use a cool and moistning dyet most frequently boyled meats rather than rost or baked but fryed or broiled meats never Eat Broths often made with cooling Herbs Rice-milk Cock-broth or Barly-broths with Rasins Currans and Prunes For flesh chuse young tender and juicy as young Beef Veal Mutton Lamb Kid Pork Green-geese Turkie Capon Chickens and such like Observe fish dayes as good dyet and then you may eat fresh Salmon Lobster fresh Herrings Crabs Prauns fresh Cod Thornback Soles Plaise Whiting Smelt Oisters Pike Trout Tench and other fresh fish Eeles not excepted which are unwholesom to others But refrain salt Meats and dryed as Bacon old Ling Haberdine salt Cod pickled or red Herrings pickled Scalops Oisters Anchoves Sturgeon hang'd Beef dryed Tongues and such like Milk and Milk meats are pleasant and good as Custard White-pots new Cheese fresh Cheese and Cream For your Sauces use Verjuce Sorrel Orange Lemmon Apples Gooseberries Currans Prunes pickled Cucumbers as boyled Veal and Greene-sauce rost Veal and Orange boyled Mutton with Verjuce and its own juice rost Mutton and Cucumbers green-Geese and Gooseberries Stubble Goose and Apples Pig and Currants Pork and green-sauce boiled Chickens with Gooseberries or Sorrel-sops Calves feet stewed with Currans and Prunes And your meat thus Cook'd is both food and Physick Take a lawful freedom and please your self with these Fruits Citrons Pomegranats Oranges Lemmons quince Pearmains Pippins Cherries Mulberries Grapes Damsins Bullaces Prunellaes Respass Currans Barberries Strawberries they cool and quench thirst contemperate and asswage hot cholerick humours and give a great refreshment to the parched spirits Eat Sallads of Lettuce Sorrel Purslane Spinage and Violet-leaves they are medicamental aliment but be sparing in Mustard Salt and Spices Butter-milk Whey and Cider allay preternatural heat check the effrenation of Choler and are refreshing to you Refuse the fat and brown out-side of meat also the crust of Bread and be sparing in Butter and Oyl Drink Wine Spirits and strong Liquors but as Physick to refresh and assist a weak stomach and not otherwise Fast not but satisfie the Stomach when it vellicates and calls for meat biting choler must have something to feed on or it will disturb the body Cherish and indulge sleep it cools and moistens but let it not exceed in length which puts Nature by her due times for necessary evacuations Be not too eager and constant in study nor use late sitting up both exasperate this condition of body and make it worse Use very gentle Exercise and be not laborious or toyling but take your ease avoid violent motion for it fires the spirits and heats the body which is very injurious to this Constitution Frequent Venus is most pernicious Cold Baths are profitable and refresh much by cooling the blood allaying the spirits and concentring them Banish anger immoderate care peevishness and fretting which discompose the spirits heat and waste them augment Choler dry the body and hasten old Age. Refrain Tabaco as a very injurious custom it exasperates Choler by heating drying and evacuating dulcid Phlegm which contemperates bridles and checks the fury of acrid bilious humours SECT XXI The Melancholy Constitution directed and governed BY Melancholy Constitution I here understand such a condition of body as is procured and most commonly is the consequent of habituated Melancholy or a melancholy heavy Soul and a discrasied Spleen To pass by the controversies that might arise here from the distinction of melancholy by the Galenists as one of the four constituent humours I shall take for granted on both sides as well Chymists as them that the aforesaid causes do beget such a constitution or condition of body as may well require a peculiar Diaetetick Regiment as an allay or mitigation of those preternatural Symptoms that necessarily follow such Causes at least that they may not be aggravated by an injurious course of living A melancholy studious and sedentary life does much
abate and suspend the emanative vigour and activity of the Soul equally distributed geometricè amongst the several faculties as the spring of their motion and actions from which abatement and depression of their power the functions are not discharged so exactly vigorously and unblamably but more or less according to the aggravation or intention and remission of those Causes Now as the Spleen is more eminently the seat of that passion and commonly a part most apparently injured leading the rest into disorder We shall appoint such a government or prudent election and modification of such things comprised in the Diaetetick part of Physick as may best sute with such a condition of body The melancholy splenetick person whose digestive faculties are debilitated must feed more tenderly and nicely than another else that flatulency and oppression which commonly does attend this condition of body will be aggravated and much more molesting For by a gross and plentiful feeding are those evils increased Let not your common dyet be of such Meats as are hard and difficult to digest that lie long upon the stomach and require a strong incising ferment for separation and transmutation as Meats long salted dryed fryed or broyled c. but keep to such as are light and of facil digestion that soon yield in fermentation and are transmuted without great labour and trouble Meats thus distinguished you will find set down in the 54 55 and 56. pages preceding where you may make Election If you have a hot and dry costive body use Barley-broths with Prunes Rasins and Currans and you may eat sometimes Pippins Pearmains Cherries Respas Strawberries and such like good fruits to cool and moisten Take not a full meal at Supper nor late but eat sparingly And if that be too much as may easily be discovered then forbear Suppers wholly Capers Broom-buds and Sampire are good Sauce they please the Palate quicken the Appetite open Obstructions and help Digestion all which are profitable for this condition of body Also Borrage Bugloss Endive Cichory Baum Fumitory Mary-gold-flowers Violets Clove-gilliflowers and Saffron are of good use Drink Cider sometimes and small White-Wine also Whey if your stomach agrees with it Keep the body soluble your Head will be more free from pains fumes and heaviness Also the lower Region of the Body will not so frequently be disturbed with flatulent rumblings distention and windy eruptions Cherish Sleep it refresheth the spirits pacifies a troubled mind banisheth cares and strengthens all the faculties but tiresome waking in the night is a great Enemy to a melancholy person Fly Idleness the Nurse of Melancholy but exercise often and follow business or recreations Walk in the green Fields Orchards Gardens Parks by Rivers and variety of places Change of Air is very good Avoid solitariness and keep merry Company Be frequent at Musick Sports and Games Recreate the spirits with sweet fragrant and delightful smells Banish all passions as much as in you lies fear grief despair revenge desire jealousie emulation and such like Opus est te Animo valere ut Corpore possis Give not your self to much study nor night-watchings two great Enemies to a melancholy person Refrain Tabacco though a seeming pleasant Companion the phancy is pleased but for a short time and the ill effects are durable SECT XXII Diseases and Passions of the Soul in general MAN is made up of two grand parts Soul and Body the one Active ruling and governing the other Passive obeying and instrumental The one hath its ferenity tranquillity and placidness The other due organization and fabrication But both Soul and Body are subject to disorder discomposure and inaptitude for the regular performance of their Actions and Offices Great discoveries have been made of that Part of Man which presents it self to the eye We have viewed his Fabrick and I may say exactly Witness the excellent Anatomical pieces that are extant wherein are discovered and laid open all the contrivances of this rare Machine But the Spring that sets all on work the intrinsick mover the Soul lies much in darkness and acts as it were behind the Curtain Whose deficiencies and aberrations are little taken notice of except in the irregularities of passion and then only in relation to divine and moral rectitude And therefore in our Physical Discourses I find the Body to be accused of infirmity and failing throughout the Catalogue of Diseases and that the indisposition of Organs to act is the sole or main cause of the irregularity and deficiency of the Functions And that the hability of the Soul to act ad extra does depend wholly upon the capacity and aptitude of the instrumental parts But I am otherwise perswaded to believe and from no small reasons That as there is great difference of Souls in divine and moral goodness why not then in natural abilities and integrity relating to health and sickness And therefore it is very rational to assert that many defects or disorders in the Functions and ruinous decays of the Body does arise and spring forth from the pravity and debility of the Soul by its lapsid nature And that the first motions ab intra or emanations of the Soul are and may be infirm and vitious when the Organs are in their rectitude and aptitude for regular motions But to clear this out and prosecute it to the full I must ravel into the whole Doctrine de Anima and assert contrary to the old Philosophy which will be found very erroneous but that will take up a whole Tract too big for this place and must be the work of another time Therefore I pass on Passions of mind may be considered either in relation to what is divine moral or natural Passions respecting the two first are either good or evil as their object does distinguish them but in the latter they are ill and produce bad effects as they are in degree more or less turbulent violent and durable What concerns the Passions in the two former respects is not our business in hand but as they stand in relation to Health and Sickness what disorders they produce in the regular oeconomy of the Body how the Functions are depraved debilitated or suspended by them is our task now The Diseases or infirmities of the Soul most visible are the perturbations and passions wherein the Soul is put by her genuine state of sanity placidness and serenity and that aequanimous distribution of her energy into the Members and Parts of the Body and from thence much altered disordered and disproportioned Passions draw off the Soul from exercising and executing the functions of the Body For whereas the power of the Soul is equally or proportionably divided into all the faculties in her natural placid state of government On the contrary when Passion is predominant much of that power is drawn away and expended in the prosecution and support of this Passion Passions put the spirits upon several motions sometimes contract them as in Grief Fear or Despair
the extremity and strength of passion debilitate and suppress Reason the chief contriver and manager of your design puts you upon inconsiderate immature and rash attempts and makes you more unfit incapable and unable to effect your purpose for Passion is always spurring but Reason hath its stops and pauses keeps due times for onsets and progress Thirdly That prudent and vigorous action not inane hungry volition or thirsty desire though ever so great can acquire the satisfaction of your hopes Fourthly That the ardency and heighth of desire will not imbetter sweeten or add to the heighth of your enjoyment but rather abate and lessen it in your account and esteem for what thing soever you purchase and are mistaken and deceived in you will not value at that rate you first prized it but at the worth you now find it Vehement and lofty desires screws you up to such a heighth of expectation mountain high but you must descend into fruition that 's low as the valley and when you find your self in a bottom and your Sails not so filled and puft out as formerly by the fresh gails and blasts of a strong desire your top sails then begin to flap and flag when you come in to the still calm of fruition and your lofty spirits and high thoughts will lowre amain when you Anchor in the Harbour of Enjoyment for in appearance it was great when at a distance and seemingly but now you are come nearer it is much less and inconsiderable really and what swelled you full in the prosecution of attaining will not fill you now with satisfaction but prove aery when you grasp it and soon emptied in enjoyment Non ea jam mens res habenti quae desideranti erat Fifthly That statutum est it is appointed you must or you must not obtain the thing desired which to a rational creature is sufficient without other Arguments to qualifie moderate and blunt the keen edge of desire and curb the violence of an impetuous affection but not to cowardise daunt or stop a laudable active prosecution to attain a noble vertuous and lawful end with a moderate submssiive desire Quisquis in primo obstitit Repulitque amorem tutus ac victor fuit Sen. Melancholly Grief and Despair These Passions being near allied we may rank them together as the Companions and Attendants upon adversity and misfortunes whose properties are to rob and steal away from the Soul that vivacious enlivening power which roborates and quickens all the faculties in the Body When these Passions are predominant the energy of the Soul is abated and all the functions insufficiently weakly and depravedly performed A dark Cloud of Melancholy over-spreading the Soul suffocates and choaks the Spirits retards their motion and agility darkens their purity and light these instruments in each faculty being thus disabled their offices in every part of the body are faintly executed whereby the whole body decays and languisheth witness the common symptoms of a dejected sad condition a pale thin face heavy dead eyes a slow weak pulse loss of appetite weakness faintness restlesness a weight or compression about the region of the heart with continual sighing or palpitation these are the effects wrought in the Body by Melancholy and Grief which are to be avoided as great decayers of Nature Enemies to Beauty Health and Strength Hope and Joy But these are the recreations of the Soul and are as sanative and wholesom as exercise is for the Body for the Soul plays and danceth in hope and joy Embrace therefore and cherish these as the supports of your life which raise the Soul to the highest pitch and extend her energy to the utmost These enlivening affections of the mind are the greatest friends to and preservatives of Health and strength for in this serene state of gladness all the faculties and endowments of soul are advanced and invigorated both rational sensitive and natural which implies a vigorous performance in all the members of the Body and therefore contribute mainly to the keeping or acquiring of Health and consequently the prolongation of life Content and joy prolong youth and preserve beauty make the countenance fresh the Body plump and fat for pleasantness and delight of the soul put all the spirits upon activity quicken their operations and duty in all the functions conveigh nutriment to repair and replenish the utmost borders and confines of the microcosm therefore dum fata sinunt vivite laeti FINIS Advertisement PAins afflicting humane Bodies their various difference Causes Parts affected Signals of danger or safety Shewing their tendency to Inflammations Tumors Apostems Vlcers Cancers Gangrenes and Mortifications for a seasonable prevention of such fatal Events With a Tract of Fontinels or Issues and Setons By E. Maynwaringe Doctor in Physick Printed for Henry Bonwick in St. Pauls Church Yard Bookseller Morbus Polyrhizos Polymorphaeus A Treatise of the Scurvey Examining the different Opinions and Practice of the most solid and grave Writers concerning the nature and Cure of this Disease With instructions for prevention and Cure thereof By the same Author The fourth Edition Tabidorum Narratio A Treatise of Consumptions Scorbutick Atrophies Tabes Anglica Hectick Feavers Phthises Spermatick and Venereous wastings radically demonstrating their nature and Cures from vital and morbifick Causes By the same Author The Mystery of the Venereal Lues Gonorrhaea's c. disclosed comparing the dissenting judgments of most eminent Physicians hereupon and the various methods of Cure practised in Foreign Countries Resolving the doubts and fears of such as are surprized with this secret perplexing Malady By the same Author desperati ne desperent assiduè tentando deploratos saepè curando certiùs tutiusque sanamus Medicus Absolutus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Compleat Physician qualified and dignified the rise and progress of Physick Historically Chronologically and Philosophically illustrated Physicians of different Sects and Judgments distinguished the abuse of Medicines imposture of Empericks detected c. By the same Author Praxis Medicorum antiqua nova The Ancient and Modern Practice of Physick examined stated and compared the Preparation and Custody of Medicines as it was the primitive custom with the Princes and great Patrons of Physick asserted and proved to be the proper charge and grand duty of every Physician successively c. By the same Author