particular
friend and familiar of the Boeotian god, to scorn to live amongst the
barbarians, or imitate Alexander in following the manners of those
nations; but it was not its heat but cold that was the cause of this
aversion, for that could not agree with the contrary quality. For one
similar quality doth not destroy but cherish another. Thus dry ground
bears thyme, though it is naturally hot. Now at Babylon they say the air
is so suffocating, so intolerably hot, that many of the more prosperous
sleep upon skins full of water, that they may lie cool.

QUESTION III. WHY WOMEN ARE HARDLY, OLD MEN EASILY, FOXED.

FLORUS, SYLLA.

Florus thought it strange that Aristotle in his discourse of
Drunkenness, affirming that old men are easily, women hardly, overtaken,
did not assign the cause, since he seldom failed on such occasions.
Therefore he proposed it to us (we were a great many acquaintance met
at supper) as a fit subject for our inquiry. Sylla began: One part will
conduce to the discovery of the other; and if we rightly hit the cause
in relation to the women, the difficulty, as it concerns the old men,
will be easily despatched; for their two natures are quite contrary.
Moistness, smoothness, and softness belong to the one; and dryness,
roughness, and hardness are the accidents of the other. As for women,
I think the principal cause is the moistness of their temper; this
produceth a softness in the flesh, a shining smoothness, and their usual
purgations. Now when wine is mixed with a great deal of weak liquor,
it is overpowered by that, loses its strength, and becomes flat and
waterish. Some reason likewise may be drawn from Aristotle himself; for
he affirms that those that drink fast, and take a large draught without
drawing breath, are seldom overtaken, because the wine doth not stay
long in their bodies, but having acquired an impetus by this greedy
drinking, suddenly runs through; and women are generally observed to
drink after that manner. Besides, it is probable that their bodies,
by reason of the continual deduction of the moisture in order to their
usual purgations, are very porous, and divided as it were into many
little pipes and conduits; into which when the wine falls, it is quickly
conveyed away, and doth not lie and fret the principal parts, from whose
disturbance drunkenness proceeds. But that old men want the natural
moisture, even the name [Greek omitted], in my opinion, intimates; for
that name