ently upon the soul, and ever causes fresh desires by
those images of pleasure which it brings. But the night, hiding many and
the most furious of the actions, quiets and lulls nature, and doth not
suffer it to be carried to intemperance by the eye. But besides this,
how absurd is it, that a man returning from an entertainment merry
perhaps and jocund, crowned and perfumed, should cover himself up, turn
his back to his wife, and go to sleep; and then at day-time, in the
midst of his business, send for her out of her apartment to serve his
pleasure or in the morning, as a cock treads his hens. No, sir the
evening is the end of our labor, and the morning the beginning. Bacchus
the Loosener and Terpsichore and Thalia preside over the former; and the
latter raiseth us up betimes to attend on Minerva the Work-mistress,
and Mercury the merchandiser. And therefore songs, dances, and
epithalamiums, merry-meetings, with balls and feasts, and sounds of
pipes and flutes, are the entertainment of the one; but in the other,
nothing but the noise of hammers and anvils, the scratching of saws,
the city cries, citations to court or to attend this or that prince and
magistrate are heard.

Then all the sports of pleasure disappear,
Then Venus, then gay youth removes:
No Thyrsus then which Bacchus loves;
But all is clouded and o'erspread with care.

Besides, Homer makes not one of the heroes lie with his wife or mistress
in the day-time, but only Paris, who, having shamefully fled from the
battle, sneaked into the embraces of his wife; intimating that such
lasciviousness by day did not befit the sober temper of a man, but the
mad lust of an adulterer. But, moreover, the body will not (as Epicurus
fancies) be injured more after supper than at any other time, unless a
man be drunk or overcharged,--for in those cases, no doubt, it is very
dangerous and hurtful. But if a man is only raised and cheered, not
overpowered by liquor, if his body is pliable, his mind agreeing, and
then he sports, he need not fear any disturbance from the load he
has within him; he need not fear catching cold, or too great a
transportation of atoms, which Epicurus makes the cause of all the
ensuing harm. For if he lies quiet he will quickly fill again, and new
spirits will supply the vessels that are emptied.

But this is to be especially taken care of, that, the body being then
in a ferment and disturbed, no cares of the soul, no business abo