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 disposition 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 stayes 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 wholesome 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 aetherian breath The Soul is now alwayes 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 trebble strength the Muscles being full and distended with agile spirits for their activity 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 Forreign Parts commanded here and there as the emergent occasions presents it self to the Governess of this Microcosm In the third case mentioned the due order government and necessary execution of offices belonging to the wellfare and maintenance of the body and preservation of life is 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 loose 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 aetherian spirit which before had boyed it up and took delight to sport it to and fro is now ready to let it fall and grovel downwards to leave it whether it must go The wonted pleasures of their partnership and society is now disgusted and rejected Food now hath lost its relish and is become unsavory 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 fighting intervals to measure out the weary night by Exercise and sporting Recreations is now accounted druggery and laborious toyling unwilling is the Soul to move her yoak-fellow farther then the enforcing Law of Nature and necessity commands and urgeth Their joynt 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 alwayes 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 disposition 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 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 weakly and insufficiently executed From the preceding Discourse may easily be collected that the Distempers and Alienations of the Soul from her genuine Crasis 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 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 agravates and heightens their distempers and according to the temper of
their mind will their bodily infirmities be agravated or abated I shall draw up this Discourse into three Corollaryes 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 suddain great often and of longer duration the passion is by so much are the impressions and effects worse more durable and indeleable You cannot be angry or envious or melancholly 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 then the change of your countenance appears to outward view which is not a little although but a shadow or reflection of the inward distemper and disorder And were it possible by any perspective to see the alteration and discomposure within made by a passionate troubled mind the prospect would be strange and much different from that placidness and tranquility 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 alienates suspends and draws 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 onely 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 Phansies 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 begets various and real distemprs in her body if not soon satisfied and sometimes charactarized upon the Embryo in the Womb. Likewise a good stomach is taken off its meat suddenly by the coming of some unwelcome bad news the appetite is gone now the Soul is disquieted and the Body really affected and altered Let this 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 to intent alwayes or unseasonably employing the mind seriously and eagerly either in real or fictious matters fabricating Idea's upon the spirits disturbs and hinders other necessary offices and opperations conservative of 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 disqueting 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 XVI Perturbations or Passions 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 judgement 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 superior in dignity This Disease does not take up one particular part for its quarters but it seaseth 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 staires and sparkles 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 mans 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 inflamation of any particular part is a great Disease but Anger is an inflamation 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 frena animo permitte Calenti Stat. Fear Fear whether suddain and violently seazing or gradually approaching and threatning an evil to come both enervate and debilitate Nature Fear suddainly 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 terror Fear that gives warning before the evil comes and threatens as yet afar off that Soul which then yeelds up her courage and strength of resistance is disarm'd by her own phansie 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 and possibly may be prevented and never come yet it is made a
and tuition of the Body is neglected that decayes grows lean and consumptive the face grows pale the appetite abates and sleep departs or is but short and interrupted with troublesome 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 lay out more in expectation then the income of your desire obtained can possibly make a return that it is far greater in non habendo then it will be in fruendo it will be much less when you have then 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 aymes but rather retards or frustrates for the extremity and strength of passion debilitates and suppresseth 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 innane hungry volition or thirsty desire though ever so great can acquire the satisfaction of your hopes Fourthly That the ardency 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 screw 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 gailes and blasts of a strong desire your top-fails then begin to flap and flag when you come in to the still calm of fruition and your lofty spirits and high thoughts will lower amain when you Anchor in the Harbour of Enjoyment for in appearance it was great when at a distance seemingly but now you are come nearer it is much less and inconsiderable really Non ea jam mens res habenti quae desideranti erat 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 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 laudible active prosecution to attain a noble vertuous and lawful end with a moderate submisive desire quisquis in primo obstitit Repulitque amorem tutus ac victor fuit Sen. Qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum Serò recusat ferre quod subiit jugum Melancholly Grief and Despair These Passions being neer alied 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 Melancholly overspreading the Soul suffocates 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 decayes 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 Melancholly and Grief which are to be avoided as great decayers of Nature and great enemies to Beauty Health and Strength Hope Joy and Mirth But embrace and cherish these as the supports of your life which raiseth the Soul to the highest pitch and stretcheth forth her power to the utmost These enlivening affections are the greatest friends to preservatives of health and strength In this serene state of the Soul all her endowments and abilities are advanced both rational sensitive and natural the pleasantness and delight of the Soul puts the spirits upon activity and excites them to a vigorous operation and duty in all the functions preserves youth and beauty makes the body fresh plump and fat by expanding the spirits into the external parts and conveighing nutriment to repair and replenish the utmost borders and confines of the Microcosm dum fata sinunt vivite laeti Sen. FINIS
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 Does require and use more variety of supports and necessary requisites 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 introduce various Diseases and disorders which precipitates Nature in the current and course of life which 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 Creatures conformity to Nature which they cannot but observe for their preservation both individual and specisick 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 mannagement and procurement well or ill do fall under these Heads Diaetetick regiment to be observed Meat and drink place of abode sleep and watching exercise and rest excretions and retentions passions of mind In the moderation use and choice of these which particularly hereafter shall be handled consists the length and brevity of life per modum asistentiae and as causae 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 ortus in mans 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 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 for their maintenance and sustentation in the integrity of their actions offices and duties 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 ariseth 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 expiration and the like could not subsist amidst these various subalter nations 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 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 drank up that should irrigate refresh and supple them Were the body alwayes 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 alwayes 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 tyred 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 alwayes exercised in motion the body would pine and wear away if alwayes at rest it would corrupt and stink There is a rule therefore proportion measure and season to be observed in all the requisite supports 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 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 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 customes 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 preposterously without order at the liberty of your will fancy and occasions for as you
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 way of evacuation to ventilate and cleanse the habite 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 then 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 with many others some whereof are purely pastime as those named others 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 alwayes 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 then you could expect benefit from your labour or pastime 5. Walk gently after Exercise and settle by degrees no suddain changes are suteable or profitable to Nature 6. Eat not untill 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 virdure 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 careâ— alterna râ—quie 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 pleasant exercise Interdum quies inquieta est quoties nos male habet inertia sui impatiens Sen. Rest is a burthen if forced upon Nature longer then Nature does require and that is but for a short space So that the due timing 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 wholsom motion the body like standing Waters degenerates and corrupts If Rest exceeds the vigor 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 habetat labor firmat SECT VIII 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 Nemo dumdormit alicujus est pretii nonmagis quam si non viveret Quidam If he were constant in the first his life were but the shadow of Death not worth the nameing if in the latter he could not hold out long but be tyred and worn out Therefore Nature hath wisely contrived that he should not continue long in either but should be transient from one to the other and weave out his life by these short intervals Watching Action and Motion Sleep Rest and Cessation are equally requisite for the well-being of man So that these two changes 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 and Limits the Place and the Manner 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
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 The Diseases or Dyscrasies of the Soul most visible are the perturbations and passions wherein the Soul is put by her genuine state of placidness and serenity and that aequanimous distribution of her energy into the Members and Parts of the Body from thence disordered and disproportioned Passions draws 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 placed state and 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 puts the spirits upon several motions sometimes contracts them as in Grief Fear or Despare Sometimes dilates 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 conjoyned as Partners of each others ill and wellfare 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 wellfare of the body must procure Ease Rest and Tranquility 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 opperations 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 belongs 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 then the distractions inactivity wandrings and neglects of the Soul does 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 Crasis of placidness and tranquility and reduced into a turbulent unquiet and distempered state is that condition of incapacity and unfitness for government for the 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 wellfare 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 melancholly 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 is 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 subservient and attending the Souls new design and business preferred far before a good concoction 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 Concoction 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 yesterdayes provision the stomach now is weary of dressing and preparing long Dinners for the Body Lenten and fasting dayes
present calamity the suggestions being received and the Soul sinks under them make a pressure upon the Soul as really afflicting as the evil it self Multos in summa pericula 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 cum venerit Sen. As Anger swells the Soul and thrusts forward the spirits into the exterior 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 languisheth with the apprehension of a seeming future evil and the prospect of a dubious impending fate Plura sunt quae nos terrent quam 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 Quic quid humana ope majus est Diis permitte curandum Symach 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 alwayes 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 Alwayes plodding in mind is not good if your purse gains and thrives by it I am sure your body looseth 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 Qui cras futura novit Anacr An indisturbed free mind not loaded with the thoughts of many years to come but bearing onely the burthen of the day holds out much longer and preserves the faculties in strength and vigour but immoderate care and a thoughtful life wears out the faculties much sooner tires the spirits by denying them their due times for refreshment rest and ease disables them from duty and the true performance of their Offices heats and wastes the spirits and exsiccates the nutritious juces of the Body which changeth a fresh countenance into paleness degenerates a good Constitution and pines 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 Jealousie and Envy These Diseases of the mind are as painful Ulcers continually lancinating corroding or inflaming they gnaw and eat like a Cancer they take away the nourishment from food and refreshment from sleep the anguish of these sores render every thing unpleasant and unserviceable for the wellfare 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 enfeebling all the faculties Revenge besides the trouble and disquietness of spirit exposeth a man to a greater mischief Multis ◠injuriis obiicit dum una dolet Sen. then what he hath received Jealousie is a secret tormentor that gauls the mind with continual suspition 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 Sun-shine of anothers prosperity Invidus alterius rebus marcescit 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 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 joyn with the object of desire Quò non possum Corpore mente feror Ovid. Love and Desire being inordinate and impetuous seldom goes alone but is attended with other Passions as Hope Fear Melancholly Despair one or more for their consorts with which the mind is racked and torn and variously affected as the several Passions acts 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 onely 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 alwayes 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
Vita Sana Longa. THE Preservation of Health AND Prolongation of Life Proposed and proved In the due observance of Remarkable Praecautions And daily practicable Rules Relating to Body and Mind compendiously abstracted from the Institutions and Law of Nature By E. Maynwaringe Dr. in Physick Non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus Senec. LONDON Printed by J. D. Sold by the Booksellers 1669. EVERARDUS · MAYNWARINGE · MEDICINAE · DOCTOR · AETATIS · SUAE · 38 · 1668. The Preface HAving some Years since put forth a rough draught or indigested Notions upon this Subject with intentions then to revise and finish at more leasure when opportunity was afforded me yet other Subjects and business so put me by as I thought not at all to reassume this matter again nor make any farther prosecution But being informed by several that this Subject and the managing of it was acceptable to many and that no Copies was remaining with the Book-sellers but clear sold off and yet inquired for but not to be had I was sollicited and desired to reprint it for the publick good and satisfaction of those that desire to be regulated in the course of their lives and to be informed the right way for preserving of Health and prolonging of Life Considering then that Health and long-life are the two great desiderable enjoyments and perfection of Humane Nature coveted and aimed at by all and that I might not be taxed as refractory and obstinate refusing to gratifie such reasonable Desires for the acquiring those laudable ends I was hereby moved to set upon the Work again for improvement and finishing what I had left imperfect and defective in the former Tract But upon revising those sheets much came in my mind to add and to alter so that little of the old stock would remain I then thought it best to lay a new foundation or Platform of Title that I might not be ingaged to the Order Rule or Matter of the old Structure but have full liberty to manage the Work as my genius should lead me Accordingly and with this freedom I have here proceeded to draw forth and present to you this delectable Theam of Health and Long-life with the most profitable advantages the Subject imports and ease of acquiring your capacities will admit Whosoever therefore desires to live long to see their Childrens Children to preserve their youth strength and beauty to be free from molesting pains and loathsome Diseases to preserve their senses and enjoy the perfection of mind to the extremity of Age let them conform and be obedient to the Hygiastick Laws and Rules hereafter prescribed and they may expect what is here proposed for their reward Nor shall I exact and require of you an irkesome strictness or Lessian preciseness to eat and drink by weight and measure but a reasonable observance suteable and well agreeing with a sober rational person not restraining convenient liberty and the lawful pleasure of life Nor can a regular course of life be thought troublesome as a difficult and hard restraint but most pleasant and free Quod assuescenti primum difficile non erit assueto except to those accustomed to the contrary and the leaving of those ill customs is the difficulty but the Rules injoyned be facile and easie to observe And having once acquired a good habit and constant use to return to an irregular intemperate living would be a far greater burthen and irkesome if enjoyned and imposed then the declining and deserting a destructive course for a laudable wholesome regimen most consonant to a rational Creature Qui medicè vivit sine medicis diu vivet Qui non medicè vivit cum medicis saepe sed non diu erit He that lives by Rule and wholesome 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 E. M. LONDON From my House in Clarkenwell-Close Licensed August the 4th 1669. ROGER L'ESTRANGE ERRATA PAge 5. line 19. read illae p. 21. l. 17. immethodically p. 27. positivè in the Margent p. 39. l. 13. parts p. 36. l. 17. aromatical p. 72. inimicum in the Margent p. 151. l. 29. quis In the second Part. Page 24. line 27. read eradicate p. 30. l. 14. radiant p. 32. l. 15. deobstruct Long Life AND Means to attain it Section I. IN the Primitive Age of the World mans life was accounted to be about 1000 Years but after the Flood the Life of Man was abreviated half Mans Age shortned and none then attained to the tearm 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 Mans Age 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 Mans Age 60 years 60 or 70 years we count upon But although in general we find this gradual declension and abreviation of mans Life in the several Ages of the World yet must understand it was not equally so in all parts of the World together but places and climates and manner of living of a people cause much difference in the protraction of their lives Age of man differ in several places 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 then in the hot Climates and this by reason of the heat that opens the Pores and causeth so great a transpiration that exsiccates and enervates the body but a cooler Air prohibits and restrains such immoderate transpiration and exhaustion keeps the spirits vigorous and united and preserves the alimentory 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 Other Creatares keep their Age. 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 mans days should be thus abreviated and shortned from what they were and the tearm of his life reduced to so short a continuance gradually declining in the several Ages of the World is fit matter to inquire into
may see in all other creatures exactness of rule method and constant order impressed upon and radicated in their natures by which they act alwayes sutable regular and constant you may not imagine so choice and exquisite a piece as Man 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 customes 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 meane 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 alwayes 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 radicated in the constitution that if it be eaten though unknown shall produce Fluxes Vomitings Swoonings and such like effects here 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 plus minus pro viribus which discover themselves gradually at times and seasons and occasions If you acknowledge the former you must admit of the latter the reason is á majori ad minus As sleep is appointed by Nature to refresh the spirits repair lost 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 revells or business but for rest Nature does not onely 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 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 They that invert natures course preposterously promiscuously and incongruously using the necessary conservatives of life not only are deprived of their benefit but also receive a positive hurt disordering the constant regular motions in the body and discomposing the harmonious and sociable assistance of the parts in their Offices There is a rule therefore method measure and season in all the requisite supports and auxiliary helps belonging and necessary unto life or natural actions and customs whatsoever which duely observed are of much advantage for the preservation of the body in its true natural state vigor and prolongation of Being but otherwise a methodically and inordinately used disturbs Natures course uniformity and regularity of operations raiseth unnatural motions commotions and cessations introduceth disorders and disjoynes the frame of nature accelerates and hastens the dissolution of the body The Impediments of long Life are An infirm and weak constitution from the Womb derived from tender imbecile and infirm Parents Irregular and unfit tractation of Infants whose tender bodies are soon discomposed disordered by bad Nurses their erroneous customes and the ill properties of their Milk Noxious and intemperate Air. Irregular eating and drinking Immoderate and unseasonable exercise motion or labour Too much or unfit rest in the circumstances attending Sleeping and waking in extreams Immoderate Venus Undue excretion and retention of Excrements Inordinate passions and perturbations of mind All unnecessary and bad customs as virulent Purgations frequent and unnecessary Phlebotomies immoderate use of Tobaco SECT II. The Preservation of Health DIu bene Valere To live long and in health said Plato is the best thing in the World and Thales Milesius one of the seven Greek Sages being asked who was the happy Man Answered He that hath a healthy body preferring health before riches and honours or any earthly enjoyment The truth of this Opinion will best be discovered and proved by consulting with the sick man who is best able to judge of health and knows rightly the value of it Experimentally he hath found that a Crown and Scepter gives no content nor ease to a pained languishing body The excellency of Health and beauty brings no pleasure to a sick Bed and dainty Dishes affect not the distemper'd Pallate with delight Nor the sweetest Musick can recreate a restless faint-sick-man but the enjoyment of health alone is more sweet and pleasant and far more desirable then all these without it Yet who is he that values health at the rate it is worth Not he that hath it he reckons it amongst the common ordinary enjoyments and takes as little notice of it or less regards it then
his long worn Cloathes perhaps more careful of his Garments remembring their price but thinks his health cost him nothing and coming to him at so easie a rate values it accordingly and hath little regard to keep it is never truly sensible of what he enjoyed until he finds the want of it by sickness then hoc unum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 health above all things is earnestly desired and wished for This great concernment Health falls under a three-fold consideration First In its causes from whence it does immediately arise in the body Secondly In its effects the consequents and benefits that accrue to us by it and what is the state of a healthy man Thirdly The right course to obtain and means to preserve this invaluable treasure so long as the capacity of humane nature will admit And first Here we must distinguish of Health which may be taken either strictly or largely Health distinguished health in the strictest acceptation admits of no organical indisposition morbous effect or morbifick Seminary to abide in the body that although no sensible injury or inconvenient alteration may appear yet notwithstanding a person may be said not to be in perfect health as when the latent seminaries of Diseases are not budded do not sprout forth so as to be dolorous impedite any faculty or make some disturbance or alteration yet they are planted in the body and have a real Being as haereditary Diseases whose seminaries are obscured do not come to maturity of production until such an Age of the Person or some irritating occasion given to produce it sooner or later as the person is ordered well or ill in the diaetetick regiment So likewise the first ground-work and foundation of the stone is not perceptible until some time and progress give it perfection during which time that person is not in a state of health in a strict sence So likewise some Diseases do lie dormant for a time and discover nothing during that season and have their periodick motions wherein they awake and are stirred up to shew themselves upon some irritating provocations and occasions given as the epilepsie the Gout Hysterical passions and such like that have their times of cessation and returns yet these during their intermissions and cessations from hostility are in being although they do not act so as to injure and deprave any function sensibly Secondly Health may be taken largely and in the common acceptation as when no function is impedited or sensible alteration from a good state does appear we say then such a man is in health In the first and strictest sense few can be said to be in health but in the latter many are to be accounted healthful And this is the state of health understood by Galen Avicen and Averrboes in their definitions of it Which imports thus much Health what it is Health is a due power and aptitude for the exercise discharge of all the faculties in the body So that when every part and faculty perform their duty regularly and vigorously that man is said to be in health but when any faculty is impedited ill affected or depraved in its function the man then is not in perfect health So that the actions of the body and mind are the chief discoverers of health and sickness And here we see that health is seated in the faculties and does assurge or result from the regular discharge of their functions As when the appetite is sharp Signs of Health the digestion not sluggish and heavy the belly soluble the senses perfect free from pain in all parts the mind pleasant quiet sleeps the spirits brisk and lively the whole body strong nimble and vigorous in motion these are signs of Health so that examining all parts and faculties we find nothing preternatural or irregular but in every part and faculty we find a good discharge of their Office then that person is to be accounted in a right state of health so far as is discoverable by any manifest or conjectural sign The benefits and excellencies of this health is best known to those that have lost it Carendo magis quam fruendo Excellency of Health positive quid valeat cognoscimus You that have it and know not how to prize it I 'le tell you what it is that you may love it better put a higher value upon it and endeavour to preserve it with a more serious strict observance and tuition Health is that which makes your meat and drink both savory and pleasant else Natures injunction of eating and drinking were a hard task and slavish custom Health is that which makes your bed easie and your sleep refreshing that renews your strength with the rising Sun and makes you chearful at the light of another day 't is that which fills up the hollow and uneven places of your Carcase and makes your body plump and comely 't is that which dresseth you up in Natures richest Attire and adorns your face with her choicest colours 'T is that which makes exercise a sport and walking abroad the enjoyment of your Liberty 'T is that which makes fertile and encreaseth the natural endowments of your mind and preserves them long from decay makes your wit acute and your memory retentive 'T is that which supports the fragility of a corruptible body and preserves the verdure vigour and beauty of youth 'T is that which makes the soul take delight in her mansion sporting her self at the casements of your eyes 'T is that which makes pleasure to be pleasure and delights delightful without which you can solace your self in nothing of terrene felicities and enjoyments Having cursorily glanced at the excellencies of Health in this short Narrative and Epitome of its worth it remains we should next draw forth and present to your view the wayes and means to obtain and preserve this invaluable enjoyment Health as it is the result of Nature in her integrity and perfection is maintained and kept in that order and due Oeconomy by the regular and right use of those natural supports that our bodies daily require and do depend on in Being as Air Food Sleep Exercise c. Now those things that do necessarily belong and daily attend us ought so to be chosen and mannaged as does best conduce and sute with the institution of Nature to which they are appointed but if otherwise unseasonably disorderly or immoderately used they then prove pernicious and destructive more or less according to the degree and continuance of their irregularity and incongruousness Nature hath appointed both times and order and set a regular course how and when every thing should be used in its proper mode and season There is a moderation also enjoyned and limits prescribed by Nature in the use of these things which if we exceed and run into excess we then put Nature out of her mediocrity and equality in which course she cannot long continue and that also with much trouble to us by bodily
diseases and infirmities the necessary consequents of such irregularities The body of Man is as a curious Engine or Clook-work moving with divers Wheels and various internal motions subordinate to 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 irregular 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 suteable but imperfect aliene and degenerate The most 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 dammaged 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 tearms but suteable 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 The order of Nature to be observed 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 unsuteable 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 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 rouse 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 irrational courses These Precautions and Rules I will assure you are not the inventions of man 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 The penalty of an irregular life 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 decrepid 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 undergoe more trouble to procure them then there can be in avoiding them nay you lose the true pleasure of your life to purchase these inconveniencies Now what those things are which so warily and choicely you are to observe wherein consists your health and well-being have been hinted before 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 But first we must briefly treat of Sickness and a valitudinary life and shew you the great difference between that decaying condition and a state of health which Antithesis will prepare and stir you up to the strictness of duty make you more cautious and sollicitous for the preservation of your health and prize it as the summum bonum your greatest enjoyment in this life SECT III. Of Sickness and a Valetudinary State IN the preceding Section having taken a brief survey of natural life in the best estate graced and adorned with the society of health and its great attendants the concomitant benefits priviledges and enjoyments now take a view of your self when health hath turn'd its back upon you and deserts your company see then how the Scene is changed how you are rob'd and spoiled of all your comforts and enjoyments The want of health makes food to lose its wonted relish and is become disgustful and unsavoury the stomach now refuseth to receive its daily charge no longer able to perform the task but desires a quietus est from the office Sleep that was stretcht out from evening to the fair bright day is now broken into pieces and subdivided not worth the accounting the night that before seemed short is now too long and the downy bed presseth hard against the bones Exercise now is toyling and walking abroad the carrying of a burthen The body that moved so light and readily obeyed the steerage of the Pilot is now over ballac'd with its own weight and slowly tugs as against the stream Conjugal imbraces are now but the faint offers of love the shadows and representations
of former kindness The body that had the magnatism and secret attraction of souls may now be approached without loss or danger of being snared and fettered as a bondslave The Lilly and the Rose that Nature planted in the highest Mount to shew the World her pride and glory is now blasted and withered like long blown flowers The eye that flasht as lightning is now like the opacous body of a thick Cloud that roled from East to West swifter then a Celestial Orb is now tyred and weary but standing still that penetrated the Center of another microcosm hath lost its Planetary influence and is become obtuse and dull The hollow sounding breast that echoed to the chanting Bird and warbled forth delightful tunes now runs divisions with coughing strains and pauses with a deep fetch 't sigh for breath to repeat those notes again The Venal and Arterial Rivulets that ran with vital streams bedewing the adjacent parts with fruitful moisture is now drunk up with parching heat or muddied and defiled with an inundation of excremental humours The want of health converts your House into a Prison and confines you to the narrow compass of a Chamber 't is that which sowers the sweetest and most beloved enjoyments 't is that which disunites and breaks the league of copartnership between soul and body alienates and makes them at jars discomposeth their harmony and weary of their wonted sweet society A sick man is like a Clock out of order and due motion which is of little worth or use so long as it continues in that condition so is man useless both to himself and others in such a state one Wheel being faulty or defective puts the rest out of order and regularity that depend upon that motion and one part or faculty of Mans body being disordered and irregular several others consent with or share in the discomposure more or fewer as the part is more noble and principal commanding some chief Region of the Body or inferior and of a lower orb or private station The reason of this sympathy and consent of patts is first From the general agent and principle of life which is one and the same throughout the whole Secondly Because all the parts of mans body though they have their peculiar and different motions to themselves and special properties yet they are all concurrent and cooperating co-ordinately or subordinately serving to the general design of Nature and maintainance of the whole body and are so concatenated and linked together in the Oeconomy of office that their motions are dependant and of mutual concern for each others wellfare Humane bodies being in a fluxible state and apt for mutation and changing are not long in a through state of health but some part or other by some accident natural debility or disorderly living is discomposed and jarring whereby the Oeconomical harmony is disturbed The signs of such defections and a preternatural change of the body approaching is discovered by the senses our own or others making observation And these signal marks are very apparent to reasonable discerning persons that every one may have some apprehensions if they will be cautilous of sickness coming upon them and a discrasyed body As a state of Health is known by all parts acting in their Offices unblameably that viewing and examining from head to foot nothing appears unwonted or disordered So on the contrary when any part declines its duty or appears any way unwonted from its natural condition declares the beginning of a degenerate valetudinary state which in time will dammage and disorder the whole if not prevented in that particular part and a stop given to that defection Now what this part is whether principal or inferior of a general or more private use and how the prejudice does arise is necessary to be considered which will discover whether the infirmity be of greater or lesser concern of speedy or slower danger So that by noting such signs which are the fore-runners and warnings of great diseases coming on every one may in time look out for means to check the present evil and avoid the greater threatned If the Body which was fat or plump and fleshy afterwards grows lean and thin or if lean and spare bodies grow big and corpulent here is just cause of suspition that all is not right although no great prejudice at present or sensible injury by the alteration yet these cases require due examination from whence they do proceed If the Appetite abate or unwonted heaviness and fulness follow eating argues the digestion not good and the Stomach falling from the due discharge of its duty and office The Consequents of which are very considerable If sleepiness exceed the Custom and Age of the Person or watchfulness and indisposition to rest both presage no good So likewise in other particulars which for brevity sake I shall not instance In general therefore whatever alterations happens in any part or faculty of the body unusual and contrary to the custom of Nature in her integrity does not only declare for its self as a particular infirmity of that part where it buds forth but does presage upon the continuance something worse to come and that the root from whence it springs is of a spreading Nature able to bring forth more then what is manifest at present in as much as the parts are dependant upon each other in office and use and dammage to one brings detriment to the rest Precautions and Rules for the preservation of Health and Prolongation of Life In the choice of Air and places of abode AIR is so necessary to Life that without it we cannot subsist which surrounding us about and being continually suck't and drawn in must needs affect the body with its conditions and properties and by observation you may find the 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 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 of the Air drawn in by the motion of the vital parts are the vital spirits ventilated the blood volatised 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 humours 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 Boggs 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 is 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 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 Autum 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 fermenting 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 the prejudice then others But fragrant smells refresh and chear the vital spirits and are very wholsom breathing forth the vertue of those things from whence they do proceed Be not late abroad nor very early before Sun rising and after setting the Air is not so good being infested with noxious vapours until the radient influence of the Sun dispells and purifies and those whose custom it is to be often abroad at such times are most frequently molested with Rheums and Rheumatick Diseases which their declining years will more evidently manifest the prejudice Likewise in moist foggy dark weather 't is better being within then 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 then your Bed and sure I am far more wholsom Temperie Coeli corpusque Animusque juvatur Ovid. In the choice of places to live in and abide The choice of places to inhabit 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 which another 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 scituation of the place and soyl is to be noted for as much as low wet and marrish Lands is not so wholsom to inhabit as gravelly Plains and dry high-land Countreys Thirdly In relation to Countrey and City regard is to be had and here the Countrey does prevail over the City for Health and is to be accounted the best place of abode The continual smoke and anoyances that are inseparable from great Cities make those places to abound more with infirm 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 fâ—om the Earth it passeth through or 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 this is a great procurer of the Scurvy in many places as Pliny relates that Caesars Army by drinking of bad Water but a few dayes had the symptoms of that Disease The commendations of a place in reaâ—on to health and long life are these A â—â—mperate Air Best place of abode dry serene and clear Champion 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 Countreys the people are longer lived by much then 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 permits them to pitch in any place for the advantages of health and long life SECT V. Preservation of Health in the choice of Meats and Regular Eating THat which properly may be called Food or Aliment is of that nature as may fitly be transmuted and changed into the substance of the body which receives it so that what ever will not be reduced and subdued by the digestions for such a transmutation and assimilation is not proper nor convenient food for that body because the intention of eating is to repair the loss that Nature sustains daily and if food will not be converted into the substance of the body it answers not that intention and is frustraneous so that every meat which enters mans body is not aliment does not nourish but that which yeelds obedience to the digestions and is assimilated And that which may be accounted proper food for the species mankind may be unfit for some individuums this or that man as common experience shews the reason of this is from the peculiar properties of mens bodies that differ Idiosyn Crasia else the choice of Meats need not to be insisted on In regular eating you are to consider First The substance and quality of the food Secondly The fit quantity and proportion Thirdly Convenient and due times for eating Concerning the first That every one may be something instructed in the election of meats this or that most proper and sutable take these observations for a general guide First Paulo peior sed suavior cibus potus meliori at ingrato praeferendus Try by your Pallate eat no meats that does displease the Gust for a common food Secondly Examine your Stomach whether such meats do not oppress or rise in the Stomach and cause a trouble or is long in passing off and flatulent If any such symptom as these do follow and not upon other meats then such food is not convenient because it puts a difficulty upon the Stomach to digest the consequents of which are bad Thirdly Inquire into the constitution or condition of your body and have some respect to that in the election of meats for Phlegmatick cold bodies and cholerick hot and dry bodies will not well be dieted both alike but as commonly they have different inclinations to meats so Nature hath appointed and is furnished with variety to sute such several bodies and appetitions Therefore make choice of such for the most part as is commended to you suting commonly and convenient for that constitution you are of as you will find prescribed in the several Constitutions or Conditions of body following Now by these three Rules every one may make a good choice of meats in a state of health and reasonably instruct himself for the preservation thereof Next the quantity is to be considered that you do not exceed such a proportion as is agreeable to your Nature for a due supply and not overcharge the body And here I must commend to you temperance and moderation in eating as a great preservative of Health not a Lessian diet to pine and enfeeble the body not so precise but a moderate allowance proportionable to the strength and ability of the Stomach to digest considering also other conditions of body and manner of life whether active and laborious or sedentary and idle Plures gula quam gladius The contrary irregular practice hath destroyed the lives of many Some may think the more plentifully they eat the better they shall thrive in body be more nourished and the stronger for it but it will not prove so a little well digested and assimilated shall maintain the body in a stronger and more vigorous condition then being glutted with superfluity most of which is turned to excrementitious not alimentary juyce and must be cast out else sickness soon after will follow For quantity your own stomach must measure to you what is convenient which is a certain rule of proportion if you observe not to eat to a satiety and fulness but desist with an appetite being refreshed light and chearful not dulled heavy and indisposed to operation and action either of mind or body A set quantity or measure of meat or drink cannot be prescribed as a general rule and observation for all to follow in regard of the variety and great difference of persons in Constitution Age strength of Nature condition of Life and infirmities that what is convenient for one is too much for another and too little for a third the strong and healthy cannot conform to the sickly weak and infirm in quantity nor the labouring man to the sedentary and studious or the idle therefore every stomach is to be its own judge and every one ought to moderate themselves by the cautions before mentioned Indulge not the cravings of an irrational sensitive appetite but allow such a supply of daily food as will support and maintain bodily strength Quicquid plus ingeritur gravat naturam non juvat and not over-load it thereby the spirits will be vigorous and active humors attenuated and abated crudities and obstructions prevented many infirmities checkt and kept under the senses long preserved in their integrity the stomach clean the appetite sharp and digestion good But by the surplusage and over-charge the stomachical ferment is over-laid and its incisive penetrative faculty obtunded the appetite and digestion abated the stomach nauseating fluctuating and belching with crudities from whence Gripes Fluxes and Feavers the spirits clogged dull and somnolent by their indisposition and inactivity humors subside degenerate incrassate obstruct from whence various symptoms and depraved effects throughout the body debilitating and decaying the senses Noxa etsi ad tempus fortasse delitescit temporis tamen successu sese exerit enervating and stealing away the strength of the body by defrauding it of good nutriment hastning old age and shortning life In Winter you may eat more freely but in Summer the spirits are dilated exhausted and drawn forth by the external heat opening the pores wherefore the appetite is not so sharp nor digestion so quick And the Rule is true though heat be not the principal cause of concoction yet it is a necessary Agent Excitor and Cooperator Change your dyet according to the seasons of the year the variation of your body and inclination to this or that distemper in Winter more meat and less drink in Summer less meat and more liquids in Summer meats oftner boiled in Winter roasted a hot and dry body must have a cooling and moist diet a cold and moist body a hot and dry dyet temperate bodies are preserved by temperate things and their like distempered bodies are rectified and reduced
by dissimilars The more simple and single your dyet is the better and more wholsom but if your stomach must have variety let it be at several meals and so you may please your Pallat without prejudice Accustom not your self to delicacies and compound dishes the heterogenity of their nature begets a discordant fermentation in the stomach troubling concoction from whence eructations nauseous belchings and offensive risings in the throat Aphor. Quo simplicior victus ratio eo melior Of all meats flesh affords the most nourishment and the strongest If your dyet sometimes be not so good and proper for you in the quality and substance make amends in the quantity and eat the less Of all Sauces a good stomach is the best but if you must have other let it be acide sharp or biting Accustom strong stomachs to strong meats the weaker to lighter of digestion very light meats in strong stomachs are soon digested but withal parched and corrupted and turn to a bitter and cholerick juyce solid hard meats in weak stomachs lie long and heavy and pass away crude and undigested Meats in respect of their facility and difficulty in digestion are termed heavy and light Heavy meats be such as are more dry hard solid and dense gross course and tough or over moist slimy and cold requiring a longer time in fermentation volatization and digestion before they be fit to pass off the stomach And they are either so in their Nature as all old flesh Bull-Beef and Oxe Brawn Pork Venison Hare Goose Duck Swan Crane Bittern Heron and most Water Fowl Eels Lobster Lampreys Tench Stock-fish Beans Pease when they be somthing old brown Bread Barley and Rie Bread Also some parts are of harder digestion then other as Brains Hearts Livers except of tame Fowl Birds and some very young flesh Milts Kidneys Skin Meats made heavy or made worse then in their own nature by preparation keeping and dressing as dryed fryed and broyled meats meats long salted and kept as Bacon hang'd Beef and long powdered old Ling salt Cod Haberdine pickled Herrings red Herrings pickled Scallops Sturgion salt Salmon hard Egs tosted Cheese tosted Bread especially if it be scorched Crusts Pye-crust Bread not well baked unleavened meats over baked hard and dry long kept meats rosted dry or scorched Light meats and of quicker digestion be such as are most soft and tender rare as it is opposed to density therefore sooner penetrated by the stomachical ferment succulent volatile soon fermenting and yeelding to digestion As young tender flesh of Veal young Mutton Lamb Kid Pullet Capon Chicken Conies Turkie Pheasant Partridge Plover Woodcock Snite Heath-Cocks and small Birds Whiting Smelt Oister Flounder Soles Plaise Thornback Turbut Trout Carp Pike Bream Pearch and such like Rere Egs Milk Wheat Bread white light and well baked also Oaten Bread well made and these may be divided into two sorts that is meats very light as Rere Egs sucking Rabbits Chickens Whitings and meats indifferent light as Mutton Lamb Veal Very light meats are soon digested Quae facile digeruntur facile etiam corrumpuntur apt to be corrupted in strong stomachs breeds tender and effeminate bodies soft and loose flesh easily lost solid strong meats are slower in digestion not easily corrupted slow in distribution makes strong bodies firm hard flesh and durable Use not meats that hath any quality in extream as very salt very hot sower binding or the like but keep to those that are moderate Let your Bread be of Wheat leavened well kneaded and baked light and white which you may eat new but not hot nor staler then two dayes old and chuse the crumb rather then the crust Seasonings of meat are used either as preservatives to keep them from putrefaction and decay or as correctives to alter and change some ill quality and promote digestion or for delight to gratifie the pallat as Sugar Salt Vinegar Mustard Pepper Cloves and other Spices Meat moderately salted having time to digest ferment volatize and alter the crude qualities is better and wholsomer then fresh but to eat Salt at the Table is not so good if the condition of the meat be such as to allow a praevious digestion and seasoning Salt is grateful to the pallate and stomach excites the appetite concocts crude flegmatick matter that lies upon the stomach hinders putrefaction and is abstersive but immoderately used corrodes and frets causeth itching and breakings out very bad for thin lean bodies it heats and dries the blood and natural moisture Sugar in a temperate clean body moderately used nourisheth and is good but in a foul body is soon corrupted degenerates and makes the body more impure turns to choller and inflames cholerick hot bodies The frequent and immoderate use in any obtunds and abates the appetite causeth putrid humours and makes an unwholsome body Vinegar and sower juyces as of Lemmons Verjuce and the like procure appetite and help the stomach in digestion of grosser meats but the immoderate and frequent use cooles dries constringeth and bindes the body hurtful to the Nerves and nervous parts very bad for Women and those that are subject to the Gout Asthmaes and stoppings in the breast or in other parts and for lean and dry bodies Mustard quickens the appetite warms the stomach dries up superfluous moisture helps the stomach digesting hard meats opens stoppings in the breast and head Mace Ginger Nutmeg Pepper and Cloves they help a cold stomack comfort the heart and brain refresh the spirits by their atomatical odour are grateful upon the Pallate and very acceptable to Phlegmatick cold bodies In the use of the forementioned I shall give this caution that young stomachs and strong healthy bodies which need not a spur to their appetite nor a help to digestion that they frequent not the use of these seasonings and sauces but reserve them for Age deficiency of stomach and other infirmities for if you accustom your self to them in youth and strength to please your pallate and intice your stomach there being no need when the condition of your body does require them you shall not find that benefit and assistance from them which otherwise you might have expected and received had you forborn the use of them when it was not necessary When you come to Meat leave your care and business but bring in your friend and be as merry as you can mirth and good company is a great help to a dull stomach both for appetite and digestion Eat not presently after exercise and when you are hot but forbear till the spirits be retired and setled in their stations Eat not hastily but chew your meat well 't is a good preparation for concoction and your stomach will more easily and sooner digest it but if it be half chewed the stomach must have the labour to chew it over again with its incisive ferment Drink a little and oft at meat to macerate and digest especially if your meat be dry and solid and
to help distribution of aliment but great draughts cause fluctuations Hasty motion opens the Orifice of the stomach precipitates and vitiates digestion Forbear reading writing study or serious cogitations for two hours after meat else you draw off from the stomach abate the strength of digestion and injure the brain Omit a meal sometimes it acuates and sharpens the stomach concocts indigested matter and makes the next meal rellish better Eat no late suppers nor variety at once a good stomach may endure it for a while but the weaker is more sensible of the injury the best is prejudiced in time Let not the common custom of meals Nemo sanitatis suae studiosus aliquid comedat nisi ad hoc certo prius invitante desiderio ventriculo una cum reliquis superioribus intestinis à praesumpto cibo vacuatis Avicen invite you to eat except your appetite concur with those times and keep a sufficient distance between your times of eating that you charge not the stomach with a new supply before the former be distributed and passed away and in keeping such a distance your stomach will be very fit and ready to receive the next meal the former being wrought off perfectly no semi-digested crude matter remaining to commix with the next food and that is one chief cause of crudities and a foul stomach when a new load is cast in before the former be gone off which begets much excrements not much aliment clogs the body and procures Diseases The stomach that is empty receives closeth and embraceth food with delight will be eager and sharp in digestion and the body will attract and suck the aliment strongly each part as it passeth along will perform its office readily and sufficiently which they will not do if often cloyed with depraved and indigested aliment but slowly and with reluctancy for although they do not act by reason yet they have a natural instinct or endowment to discern their proper and fit object If your body becomes lean and your flesh looser then formerly do not pamper and feed your self highly expecting to recover and regain the lost flesh for in so doing you add more mischief and make your body fouler then before Corpora impura quo plus nutries eò magis laedes Hipp. and miss of your purpose and unless the former impediments that hindered and frustrated nutrition be removed in vain it is to expect it from the addition and greater supply of food or high nourishers SECT VI. Preservation of Health in the choice of Drinks and Regular Drinking 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 then others or if thirst importunes you at any time to satisfie with a moderate draught is better then to forbear Accustom youth strong stomachs to small drink but stronger drink and Wine to the infirm and aged it chears the spirits quickens the appetite and helps digestion moderately taken but being used in excess disturbs the course of Nature and procures many Diseases for corpulent gross and fat bodies thin hungry abstersive penetrating Wines are best as white-Wine Rhenish and such like For lean thin bodies black red and yellow Wines sweet full bodied and fragrant are more fit and agreeable as Malaga Muscadel Tent Alicant and such like For Drink whether it be wholsomer warmed then cold is much controverted some stifly contending for the one and some for the other I shall rather chuse the middle way with limitation and distinction then impose it upon all as a rule to be observed under the penalty of forfeiting their health the observations 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 wholsom 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 or warmed as the company does since your stomach makes no choice That warm drink is no bad custom but agreeable to Nature in the generalitie first Because it comes the nearest to the natural temper of the body and similia similibus conservantur every thing is preserved by its like and destroyed by its contrary Secondly Though I do not hold it the principal Agent in digestion yet it does excite is auxiliary and a necessary concomitant of a good digestion ut signum causa Thirdly Omne frigus per se pro viribus destruit Cold in its own nature and according to the graduation of its power extinguisheth natural heat and is destructive but per accidens and as it is in gradu remisso it may contemperate allay and refresh where heat abounds and is exalted Therefore as there is variety of Pallates and Stomachs likeing 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 at least does not find that satisfaction and refreshment under such a qualification because of the various natures particular appetitions and idosyncratical 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 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 prepared then to be made so by it 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 Primum crater ad sitim pertinere secundum ad hilaritatem tertium ad voluptatem quartum ad insanium dixit Apuleius to exhilerate 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 Many such there are who drink not to
satisfie Nature but force it down many times contrary to natural inclination and when there is a reluctancy against it as Drunkards that pour in Liquor not for love of the drink or that Nature requires it by thirst but only to maintain the mad frollick and keep the Company from breaking up Some to excuse this intemperance hold it as good Physick to be drunk once a month and plead for that liberty as a wholsom custom and quote the authority of a famous Physitian for it Whether this Opinion be allowable and to be admitted in the due Regiment for preservation of health is fit to be examined Omne nimium naturae est inimicunt 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 supports of life may prove the procurers of death if not qualified and made wholsom by this corrective Meat and drink is no longer sustinance but a load and over-charge if they exceed the quantum due to each particular person and then they are not what they are properly in themselves and by the appointment of Nature the preservatives of life and health but the causes of sickness and consequently of death Drink was not appointed man to discompose and disorder him in all his faculties but to supply nourish and strengthen them Drink exceeding its measure is no longer a refreshment to irrigate and water the thirsty body but makes an inundation to drown and suffocate the vital powers 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 gon 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 then 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 then as genus and species Drunkenness being a raging Disease 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 as health is 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 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 strangly 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 pallate rellish c. The speech faulters and is imperfect the stomach perhaps vomits or nauseates his 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 look't 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 mortal The inebriating spirits of the liquor flowing in so fast and joyning 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 overcharged 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 then if the morbifick matter were more 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 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 quicker and easier digestion So that the symptoms from thence are much more dangerous then those peracute distempers arising from Liquors So likewise those bad symptoms in other diseases are more to be feared and accounted mortal then 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 and a spirituous matter that layes not so great an oppression but inebriates the spirits that they act very disorderly and unwontedly or by the soporiferous vertue stupefies them for a time until they recover their agility 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 overcharging 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 for the gaining of one supposed benefit which might be obtained otherwise you introduce 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 and if the disease feared or may be could be prevented no otherwise but by this drunken means then that might tollerate and allow it but there are other wayes better and safer to cleanse the body either upwards or downwards then by overcharging with strong drink and making the man to unman himself the evil consequents of which are many 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 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 appears to us externally that the functions within also and their motions are strangely disordered for the outward madness and unwonted actions proceeds 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 alienateing 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 as belching thirst disrelish nauseating do certainly testifie yet to support nature 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 is some dayes before the stomach recover its eucrasy 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 A Cacotrophy or Atrophy but fall into one of these conditions and habit of body for if the Stomach discharge not its office aright the subsequent digestions will also be defective So great a consent and dependance 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 Ax. 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 vigor 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 juyces be foul and of a depraved nature Others è 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 transmits 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 Urine yet the grosser and worse part stayes behind and clogs in the percolation A third injury and common manifest prejudice from intemperate drinking is An imbecility 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 SECT VII Exercise and Rest regulated and duly appointed THat Exercise and due Motion contributes to the preservation of Health and prolongation of Life will appear if we consider the benefits that are procured by it First In general exercise it 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 is 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 It 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 conveyancies are dilated and expanded which together with the agitation of
at the rising of the Sun they are fresh brisk and agile and then 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. Moderate sleep 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 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 Go early to sleep not with a full stomach and early from sleep that you may rise refreshed lively and active not dulled and stupid 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 Sōnus meridianus quibus concedendus labour or the like that dissipates the spirits and enervates then a moderate sleep restores the spirits to their vigor again and is a good refreshment but rather take it sitting then 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 abateth natural heat Vigiliae longioris incommoda breeds Rhumes and Crudities and most injurious to thin lean bodies 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 condition of life necessitate them to it as Soldiers 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 much worse unboarded a new washt Room or new plaistered but chuse a high Room dry sweet 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 wholsome As for the manner or decumbiture the body must lie easie or sleep will be disturbed the head somthing elevated the other parts as best likes every person but not upon the back or constantly upon one side but by turns and be covered according to the Climate and Season of the Year The mind also must be in a good posture well composed and setled when you are in bed or that will break off your sleep before due time and defraud you of your nights rest if you lie down with roving troubled thoughts they commonly will call you up before it is fit to rise and your sleep not so placid and refreshing Therefore when you lay by your cloaths lay aside also your business care and thoughts and let not a wandring phansie prevent your rest or awake you before due time SECT IX Preservation of Health by Regular and Requisite Evacuation and Retention ALL that the body receives is not fit to be retained our food though choicely pickt and temperately used yet all does not turn into the substance of the body but some part is to be separated and sent forth the rest to supply nourish and be assimilated This regular course being continued the body thrives and is in good order but if that which should be evacuated and sent forth be retained or that which ought to be retained be prodigally wasted and injuriously emitted then the body suffers and decayes when the regular oeconomy thereof is subverted Hinc ingens morborum turba And here we are to consider of the various excretions that Nature does require and is beneficial and of such retentions as are injurious Under this Head is comprised excretions by Stool by Urine menstrual Purgations Venus by the Pores Nose and Ears of which the former are of the greatest concernment and special care to be had of them Excremental evacuations are various proceeding from the several digestions conveyed out by several Channels and Vents of Natures fabrication which duly evacuated are no smal helps to the conservation of health and are the effects of a temperate and regular body The retention of them beyond due time argue discrasy of parts or irregular living and brings much detriment to the body by their noxious inpressions and putrid vapours that infect and disturb the body If the Belly be costive and bound up if the Urine be supprest the monthly Courses stopt the Pores occluded and shut up the Soul will be stifled in the Body and the Body polluted and corrupted with its own Excrements and as these are so more or less in degree swerving from rectitude so it fares with the body better or worse And on the contrary if the Belly let pass too soon and forceably before the alimentary part be separated sweeping down both together if the Urine flows too freely and drains the body If the Female Courses be immoderately current and exhaust the vital stream If the Sperme be involuntarily issuing and daily wasting If the Texture be too lax and pervious the Pores patent and evaporating the damage is as great as the former and as much to be feared as these evacuations are more or less enormous So that nothing but moderation and an even course between these two extreams are conservative of Health and longaevity And that this may be so all your actions and necessary customs must be bounded by mediocrity this is the Golden Chain that ties all together one Link whereof being broken the whole is broken and disunited having a dependance and mutual tye upon each other As the discharging of Nature moderately and seasonably in all her requisite evacuations preserves the body in health and strength so contrarily Immoderate evacuations causeth weakness debility of Nature by exhaustion and procures several Diseases Cachexies Consumptions Dropsies c. To keep the body soluble is very good that at least once a day you may not miss to have a stool else the Faeces are hardned the body heated the stomach molested the appetite not so good the head heavy dull and sometimes pained some grosser matter which should go away by seige is brought by the Urinary passage occasioning obstructions all
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 injoyned 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 Natura est morborum medicatrix Helm 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 enjoyn 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 injoyned 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 enjoyned to observance as tender weak bodies soon discomposed and altered by ill dyet or 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 Hearbs to make his Meat savory and acceptable to his Stomach But the Cholerick Man shall delight in the other and they shall sute best being temperately and discretely used So that a Diaetetick Regiment well appointed and observed is physical to dyscrasyed and distempered bodies to contemperate and allay the 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 XI Praecautions and Rules Appointed for the Sanguine Constitution or purest State and Condition of Body 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 imbecility 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 enjoyes 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 Juyces 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 wayes 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. introduceth 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 Tobacco the common Purgatives falsly denominated but rather and more properly Corruptives which stamp an ill impression upon the parts and vitiate the alimentary Juyces of the Body but the injuries procured from Tobacco 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 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 XII Diaetetick Regiment Assigned to the Phlegmatick Constitution 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 more cool in temperature except preternaturally 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 benefitted by cold things prejudiced And thus it is by reason the vital powers are remiss and sluggish the several functions of the body are not performed vigorously and compleatly 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 in 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 savory and seasoned And then a Phlegmatick raw stomach may better venter upon such But Brawn Pig Goose Duck water-foul 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 pallate drink Wine with these meats for a corrective Let your dyet be warm Meats oftner roast then 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 curd 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 Hearbs and Sallads as Lettice 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 Hearbs Abstain from raw Fruits Apples Pears Plums Cucumbers Mellons Pumpions c. But you eat may Wall-nuts Filbirds Almonds blanched Ches-nuts Fistick-nuts Dates Figs Rasins Drink strong Beer more frequently then small and sometimes Sack Not French Wine if you be Rheumatick Indulge not yourself 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 suffitates and raiseth the spirits alleviates nature and helps Concoction SECT XIII The Cholerick Constitution Regulated 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 Hearbs Rice-milk Cock-broth or Barly-broths with Rasins Currants and Prunes For flesh chuse young tender and jucy 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 unwholsome to others But refrain salt Meats and dryed as Bacon old Ling Haberdine salt Cod pickled or red Herrings pickled Scalops Oysters Anchoves Sturgeon hand 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 Goosberries Currans Prunes pickled Cucumbers as boyled Veal and green-sauce rost Veal and Orange boyled Mutton with Verjuce and its own juce rost Mutton and Cucumbers green-Geese and Goosberries Stubble Goose and Apples Pig and Currants Pork and green-sauce boiled Chickens with Goosberries or Sorrel-sops Calves feet stewed with Currans and Prunes And your meat thus coock'd is both food and Physick Take a lawful freedom and please your self with these fruits Citrons Pomegranats Limes Oranges Lemmons Quince Pearmains Pippins Cherries Mulberies Grapes Damsins Bullaces Prunellaes Respass Currans Barberries Strawberries they cool and quench thirst contemperate and aswage 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 Sider allayes preternatural heat checks the effrenation of Choler and are refreshing 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 asist a weak stomach and not otherwise Fast not but satisfie the Stomach when it vellicates and calls for meat biting choller must have something to feed on or it will disturbe 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 Too eager and constant in study or late sitting up both exasperates this condition of body and makes it worse Use very gentle Exercise 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 is profitable and refresheth much by cooling the blood allaying the spirits and concentring them Bannish anger immoderate care peevishness
and fretting which discomposeth the spirits heats and wasts them augments Choller dryes the body and hastens old Age. Refrain Tobacco 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 XIV The Melancholy Constitution Stated and Cautioned 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 dyscrasied Spleen To pass by the controversies that might arise here from the distinction of melancholly 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 melancholly 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 and unblamably but more or less according to the agravation 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 melancholly 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 agravated 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 yeelds in fermentation and is transmuted without great labour and trouble Meats thus distinguished you will find set down in the 59 60 and 61 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 Permains Cherries Respas Straberries 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 Pallate quicken the Appetite open Obstructions and help Digestion all which are profitable for this condition of body Also Borrage Bugloss Endiue Cichory Baum Fumiterry Mary-gold-flowers Violets Clove-gilliflowers and Saffron are of good use Drink Sider 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 freequently 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 melancholly person Fly Idleness the Nurse of Melancholly 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 dispare 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 melancholly person Refrain Tobacco though a seeming pleasant Companion the phansie is pleased but for a short time and the ill effects are durable SECT XV. The various Dyscrasies or 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 due Crasis tranquility and placidness The other due organization and fabrication But both 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 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 decayes 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 do's distinguish them but in the latter they are ill and produce bad effects as they in degree are more or less turbulent violent and durable