e of life, need not be apprehensive
of illness, as he need not be afraid of the effect, who has
guarded against the cause.

Since it therefore appears that a regular life is so
profitable and virtuous, so lovely and so holy, it ought to be
universally followed and embraced; and more so, as it does not
clash with the means or duties of any station, but is easy to
all; because, to lead it, a man need not tie himself down to
eat so little as I do, or not to eat fruit, fish, and other
things of that kind, from which I abstain, who eat little,
because it is sufficient for my puny and weak stomach; and fruit,
fish, and other things of that kind, disagree with me, which is
my reason for not touching them. Those, however, with whom such
things agree, may, and ought to eat of them; since they are not by
any means forbid the use use of such sustinance. But, then, both
they, and all others, are forbid to eat a greater quantity of any
kind of food, even of that which agrees with them, than what their
stomachs can easily digest; the same is to be understood of drink.
Hence it is that those, with whom nothing disagrees, are not
bound to observe any rule but that relating to the quantity, and
not to the quality, of their food; a rule which they may, without
the least difficulty in the world, comply with.

Let nobody tell me, that there are numbers, who, though they live
most irregularly, live in health and spirits, to those remote
periods of life, attained by the most sober; for, this argument
being grounded on a case full of uncertainty and hazard, and
which, besides, so seldom occurs, as to look more like a miracle
than the work of nature, men should not suffer themselves to be
thereby persuaded to live irregularly, nature having been too
liberal to those, who did so without suffering by it; a favour,
which very few have any right to expect. Whoever, trusting to
his youth, or the strength of his constitution, or the goodness of
his stomach, slights these observations, must expect to suffer
greatly by so doing, and live in constant danger of disease and
death. I therefore affirm, that an old man, even of a bad
constitution, who leads a regular and sober life, is surer of a
long one, than a young man of the best constitution, who leads a
disorderly life. It is not to be doubted, however, that a man
blessed with a good constitution may, by living temperately,
expect to live longer than one, whose constitution is not so
good;