ich by its infinite efficacy has been the cause,
that the meat I constantly eat, and the wine I constantly drink,
being such as agreed with my constitution, and taken in proper
quantities, imparted all their virtue to my body, and then left
it without difficulty, and without engendering in it any bad
humours.

In consequence therfore of my taking such methods, I have
always enjoyed, and (God be praised) actually enjoy, the
best of healths. It is true, indeed, that, besides the two
forgoing most important rules relative to eating and drinking,
which I have ever been very scrupulous to observe; that is,
not to take of any thing, but as much as my stomach can easily
digest, and to use those things only, which agree with me; I
have carefully avoided heat, cold, and extraordinary fatigue,
interruption of my usual hours of rest, excessive venery, making
any stay in bad air, and exposing myself to the wind and sun; for
these, too, are great disorders. But then, fortunately, there is
no great difficulty in avoiding them, the love of life and health
having more sway over men of understanding, than any satisfaction
they could find in doing what must be extremely hurtful to their
constitution. I have likewise done all that lay in my power to
avoid those evils, which we do not find so easy to remove; these
are melancholy, hatred, and other violent passions, which appear
to have the greatest influence over our bodies. However, I have
not been able to guard so well against either one or the other
kind of these disorders, as not to suffer myself now and then to
be hurried away by many, not to say, all of them; but I have
reaped the benefit of knowing by experience that these passions
have, in the main, no great influence over bodies governed by the
two foregoing rules of eating and drinking, and therefore can do
them but very little harm; so that it may with great truth be
affirmed, that whoever observes these two capital rules, is
liable to very little inconveniency from any other excesses.
This, Galen, who was an eminent physician, observed before me.
He affirms, that so long as he followed these rules relative to
eating and drinking, he suffered but little from other disorders,
so little, that they never gave him above a day's uneasiness.
That what he says is true, I am a living witness, and so are many
others, who know me, and have seen, how often I have been exposed
to heats and colds, and such other disagreeable changes o