Thirdly, it is certain also, that the common custom and opinion is no certain rule; nay, certainly it is an erring rule; for judging by appetite hath brought men ordinarily to take excess to be but temperance. All these then are false measures.
If I should here presume to give you any rules for judging of a right measure, physicians would think I went beyond my calling, and some of them might be offended at a design that tendeth so much to their impoverishing, and those that serve the greedy worm would be more offended. Therefore I shall only give you these general intimations. 1. Nature is content with a little; but appetite is never content till it have drowned nature.[422] 2. It is the perfection of concoction, and goodness of the nutriment, that is more conducible to health, than the quantity. 3. Nature will easilier overcome twice the quantity of some light and passable nourishment, than half so much of gross and heavy meats. (Therefore those that prescribe just twelve ounces a day, without differencing meats that so much differ, do much mistake.) 4. A healthful, strong body must have more than the weak and sickly. 5. Middle-aged persons must have more than old folks or children.[423] 6. Hard labourers must have more than easy labourers; and these more than the idle, or students, or any that stir but little. 7. A body of close pores, that evacuateth little by sweat or transpiration, must have less, especially of moisture, than another. 8. So must a cold and phlegmatic constitution. 9. So must a stomach that corrupteth its food, and casteth it forth by periodical bilious evacuations. 10. That which troubleth the stomach in the digestion is too much, or too bad, unless with very weak, sickly persons. 11. So is that too much or bad which maketh you more dull for study, or more heavy and unfit for labour (unless some disease be the principal cause.) 12. A body that by excess is already filled with crudities, should take less than another, that nature may have time to digest and waste them. 13. Every one should labour to know the temperature of their own bodies, and what diseases they are most inclined to, and so have the judgment of their physician or some skilful person, to give them such directions as are suitable to their own particular temperature and diseases. 14. Hard labourers err more in the quality than the quantity, partly through poverty, partly through ignorance, and partly through appetite, while they refuse that which is more wholesome (as mere bread and beer) if it be less pleasing to them. 15. If I may presume to conjecture, ordinarily very hard labourers exceed in quantity about a fourth part; shopkeepers and persons of easier trades do ordinarily exceed about a third part; voluptuous gentlemen and their serving men, and other servants of theirs that have no hard labour, do usually exceed about half in half (but still I except persons that are extraordinarily temperate through weakness, or through wisdom); and the same gentlemen usually exceed in variety, costliness, curiosity, and time, much more than they do in quantity (so that they are gluttons of the first magnitude). The children of those that govern not their appetites, but let them eat and drink as much and as often as they desire it, do usually exceed above half in half, and lay the foundation of the diseases and miseries of all their lives.[424] All this is about the truth, though the belly believe it not.
When you are once grown wise enough what in measure, and time, and quality, is fittest for your health, go not beyond that upon any importunity of appetite, or of friends; for all that is beyond that, is gluttony and sensuality, in its degree.
_Direct._ VIII. If you can lawfully avoid it, make not your table a snare of temptation to yourselves or others. I know a greedy appetite will make any table that hath but necessaries, a snare to itself; but do not you unnecessarily become devils, or tempters to yourselves or others.[425] 1. For quality, study not deliciousness too much: unless for some weak, distempered stomachs, the best meat is that which leaveth behind it in the mouth, neither a troublesome loathing, nor an eager appetite after more, for the taste's sake; but such as bread is, that leaveth the palate in an indifferent moderation. The curious inventions of new and delicious dishes, merely to please the appetite, is gluttony inviting to greater gluttony; excess in quality to invite to excess in quantity.
_Object._ But, you will say, I shall be thought niggardly or sordid, and reproached behind my back, if my table be so fitted to the temperate and abstinent.