ny battles; and
how is it possible to support nature by such a variety of contrary
and unwholesome foods? Put a stop to this abuse, for God's sake,
for there is not, I am certain of it, a vice more abominable than
this in the eyes of the Divine Majesty. Drive away this new kind
of death, and you have banished the plague, which, though it
formerly used to make such havock, now does little or no mischief,
owing to the laudable practice of attending more to the goodness
of the provisions brought to our markets. There are means still
left to banish intemperance, and such means too, that every man
may have recourse to them without any assistance. Nothing more is
requisite for this purpose, than to live up to the simplicity
dictated by nature, which teaches us to be content with little,
to pursue the medium of holy abstemiousness and divine reason,
and to accustom ourselves to eat no more than is absolutely
necessary to support life; considering, that what exceeds this,
is disease and death, and merely gives the palate satisfaction,
which, though but momentary, brings on the body a long and lasting
train of disagreeable sensations and diseases, and at length
destroys it along with the soul. How many friends of mine, men
of the finest understanding and most amiable disposition, have I
seen carried off by this plague in the flower of their youth? who,
where they now living, would be an ornament to the public, whose
company I should enjoy with as much pleasure, as I now feel
concern at their loss.

In order, therefore, to put a stop to so great an evil, I have
resolved by this short discourse to demonstrate, that
intemperance is an abuse which may be easily removed, and that
the good old sober living may be substituted in its stead; and
this I undertake more readily, as many young men of the best
understanding, knowing that it is a vice, have requested it of
me, moved thereto by seeing their fathers drop off in the flower
of their youth, and me so sound and hearty at the age of
eighty-one. They expressed a desire to reach the same term,
nature not forbidding us to wish for longevity; and old-age being,
in fact, that time of life in which prudence can be best
exercised, and the fruits of all the other virtues enjoyed with
less opposition, the passions being then so subdued, that man gives
himself up entirely to reason. They beseeched me to let them
know the method pursued by me to attain it; and then finding them
inten