n horseback, to lie with their wives. But Zopyrus
the physician, a man very well read in Epicurus, said, that they had not
duly weighed that piece; for he did not propose that question first,
and then discuss that matter on purpose; but after supper he desired the
young men to take a walk, and he then discoursed on it, that he might
persuade them to continence, and to abate their desires and restrain
their appetites; showing them that it was very dangerous at all times,
but especially after they had been eating or making merry. But suppose
he had proposed this as the chief topic for discourse, doth it never
become a philosopher to inquire which is the convenient and proper time?
Ought we not to time it well, and direct our embrace by reason? Or may
such discourse be otherwise allowed, and must they be thought unseemly
problems to be proposed at table? Indeed I am of another mind. It is
true, I should blame a philosopher that in the middle of the day, in the
schools, before all sorts of men, should discourse of such a subject;
but over a glass of wine between friends and acquaintance, when it
is necessary to propose something beside dull, serious discourse, why
should it be a fault to hear or speak anything that may inform our
judgments or direct our practice in such matters? And I protest I had
rather that Zeno had inserted his loose topics in some merry discourses
and agreeable table-talk, than in such a grave, serious piece as his
politics.

The youth, startled at this free declaration, sat silent; and the rest
of the company desired Zopyrus to deliver Epicurus's sentiment. He said:
The particulars I cannot remember; but I believe he feared the violent
agitations of such exercises, because the bodies employed in them are
so violently disturbed. For it is certain that wine is a very great
disturber, and puts the body out of its usual temper; and therefore,
when thus disquieted, if quiet and sleep do not compose it but other
agitations seize it, it is likely that those parts which knit and join
the members may be loosened, and the whole frame be as it were unsettled
from its foundation and overthrown. For then likewise the seed cannot
freely pass, but is confusedly and forcibly thrown out, because the
liquor hath filled the vessels of the body, and stopped its way.
Therefore, says Epicurus, we must use those sports when the body is at
quiet, when the meat hath been thoroughly digested, carried about and
applied to sever