tions_ duly _Observ'd_; you have a _Sallet_
(for a Table of Six or Eight Persons) _Dress'd_, and Accommodated
_secundum Artem_: For, as the [68]Proverb has it,

[Greek: 'Ou oantos andros esin artusai kalos.]
_Non est cujusvis recte condire_.

And now after all we have advanc'd in favour of the _Herbaceous_ Diet,
there still emerges a third Inquiry; namely, Whether the Use of _Crude
Herbs_ and _Plants_ are so wholesom as is pretended?

What Opinion the Prince of Physicians had of them, we shall see
hereafter; as also what the Sacred Records of elder Times seem to infer,
before there were any Flesh-Shambles in the World; together with the
Reports of such as are often conversant among many Nations and People,
who to this Day, living on _Herbs_ and _Roots_, arrive to incredible
Age, in constant Health and Vigour: Which, whether attributable to the
_Air_ and _Climate_, _Custom_, _Constitution_, &c. should be inquir'd
into; especially, when we compare the _Antediluvians_ mention'd _Gen._
1. 29--the whole _Fifth_ and _Ninth_ Chapters, _ver._ 3. confining them
to _Fruit_ and wholesom Sallets: I deny not that both the _Air_ and
_Earth_ might then be less humid and clammy, and consequently Plants,
and Herbs better fermented, concocted, and less Rheumatick, than since,
and presently after; to say nothing of the infinite Numbers of putrid
Carcasses of Dead Animals, perishing in the Flood, (of which I find
few, if any, have taken notice) which needs must have corrupted the
Air: Those who live in Marshes, and Uliginous Places (like the Hundreds
of _Essex_) being more obnoxious to _Fevers_, _Agues_, _Pleurisies_,
and generally unhealthful: The Earth also then a very Bog, compar'd
with what it likely was before that destructive _Cataclysm_, when
Men breath'd the pure _Paradisian_ Air, sucking in a more _aethereal_,
nourishing, and baulmy _Pabulum_, so foully vitiated now, thro' the
Intemperance, Luxury, and softer Education and Effeminacy of the
Ages since.

_Custom_, and _Constitution_ come next to be examin'd, together with
the Qualities, and _Vertue_ of the Food; and I confess, the two first,
especially that of _Constitution_, seems to me the more likely Cause of
Health, and consequently of Long-life; which induc'd me to consider of
what Quality the usual _Sallet_ Furniture did more eminently consist,
that so it might become more safely applicable to the Temper, Humour,
and Disposition of our Bodies; according to which, th