by eating twice in the four and twenty hours,
they make a resolution to eat but once, that the long interval
between one meal and the other may enable them to eat at one sitting
as much as they used to do in two: thus they eat till their
stomachs, overburthened with much food, pall, and sicken, and change
the superfluous food into bad humours, which kill a man before his
time. I never knew any person, who led that kind of life, live to
be very old. All these old men I have been speaking of would live
long, if, as they advanced in years, they lessened the quantity of
their food, and eat oftener, but little at a time; for old
stomachs cannot digest large quantities of food; old men changing,
in that respect, to children, who eat several times in the four and
twenty hours.

Others say, that temperance may, indeed, keep a man in health, but
that it cannot prolong his life. To this I answer, that experience
proves the contrary; and that I myself am a living instance of it.
It cannot be said, that sobriety is apt to shorten one's days, as
sickness does; and that the latter abbreviates life, is most
certain. Moreover, a constant succession of good health is
preferable to frequent sickness, as the radical moisture is
thereby preserved. Hence it may be fairly concluded, that holy
sobriety is the true parent of health and longevity.

O thrice holy sobriety, so useful to man, by the services thou
renderest him! thou prolongest his days, by which means he greatly
improves his understanding, and by such improvement he avoids the
bitter fruits of sensuality, which are an enemy to reason, man's
peculiar privilege: those bitter fruits are the passions and
perturbations of the mind. Thou, moreover, freest him from the
dreadful thoughts of death. How greatly is thy faithful disciple
indebted to thee, since by thy assistance he enjoys this beautiful
expanse of the visible world, which is really beautiful to such as
know how to view it with the philosophic eye, as thou has enabled
me to do. Nor could I, at any other time of life, even when I was
young, but altogether debauched by an irregular life, perceive its
beauties, though I spared no pains or expence to enjoy every
season of life. But I found that all the pleasures of that age had
their alloy; so that I never knew, till I grew old, that the world
was beautiful. O truly happy life, which, over and above all these
favours conferred on thine old man, hast so improved and pe