ontrived matters so, that they should
be able to subsist on little, as I do; for, large quantities of
food cannot be digested by old and feeble stomachs. Nor should
such persons be afraid of shortening their days by eating too
little, since when they happen to be indisposed, they recover by
lessening the quantity of their food; for it is a trifle they eat,
when confined to a regimen, by observing which they get rid of their
disorder. Now, if by reducing themselves to a very small quantity
of food, they recover from the jaws of death, how can they doubt
but that with an increase of diet, still consistent however with
sobriety, they will be able to support nature when in perfect
health?

Others say, that it is better for a man to suffer every year three
or four returns of his usual disorders, such as the gout, pain in
the side, and the like, than be tormented the whole year by not
indulging his appetite, and eating every thing his palate likes
best; since, by a good regimen alone, he is sure to get the better
of such attacks. To this I answer, that our natural heat growing
less and less, as we advance in years, no regimen can retain
virtue sufficient to conquer the malignity, with which disorders
of repletion are ever attended; so that he must die, at last, of
these periodical disorders, because they abridge life, as health
prolongs it.

Others pretend, that it is much better to live ten years less,
than not indulge one's appetite. To this I answer, that
longevity ought to be highly valued by men of parts; as to others,
it is no great matter if it is not duly prized by them, since they
are a disgrace to mankind, so that their death is rather of service
to the public. But it is a great misfortune, that men of bright
parts should be cut off in that manner, since he, who is already a
cardinal, might, perhaps, by living to eighty, attain the papal
crown; and in the state, many, by living some years extraordinary,
may acquire the ducal dignity; and so in regard to letters, by
which a man may rise so as to be considered as a god upon earth;
and the like in every other profession.

There are others, who, though their stomachs become weaker and
weaker with respect to digestion, as they advance in years, cannot,
however, be brought to retrench the quantity of their food, nay
they rather increase it. And, because they find themselves
unable to digest the great quantity of food, with which they must
load their stomachs,