be out in your first
argument, where you suppose the beasts use more simple food and are
more healthy than men; neither of which is true. The first the goats in
Eupolis confute, for they extol their pasture as full of variety and all
sorts of herbs, in this manner,

We feed almost on every kind of trees,
Young firs, the ilex, and the oak we crop:
Sweet trefoil fragrant juniper, and yew,
Wild olives, thyme,--all freely yield their store.

These that I have mentioned are very different in taste, smell, and
other qualities, and he reckons more sorts which I have omitted. The
second Homer skilfully refutes, when he tells us that the plague first
began amongst the beasts. Besides, the shortness of their lives
proves that they are very subject to diseases; for there is scarce any
irrational creature long lived, besides the crow and the chough; and
those two every one knows do not confine themselves to simple food, but
eat anything. Besides, you take no good rule to judge what is easy and
what is hard of digestion from the diet of those that are sick; for
labor and exercise, and even to chew our meat well, contribute very much
to digestion, neither of which can agree with a man in a fever. Again,
that the variety of meats, by reason of the different qualities of the
particulars, should disagree and spoil one another, you have no reason
to fear. For if Nature takes from dissimilar bodies what is fit and
agreeable, the diverse nourishment forces many and sundry qualities into
the mass and bulk of the body, applying to every part that which is meet
and fit; so that, as Empedocles words it,

The sweet runs to the sweet, the sour combines
With sour, the sharp with sharp, the salt with salt;

and after being mixed it is spread through the mass by the heat, the
proper parts are separated and applied to the proper members. Indeed,
it is very probable that such bodies as ours, consisting of parts of
different natures, should be nourished and built up rather of various
than of simple matter. But if by concoction there is an alteration made
in the food, this will be more easily performed when there are different
sorts of meat, than when there is only one, in the stomach; for similars
cannot work upon similars and the very contrariety in the mixture
considerably promotes the alteration of the weakened qualities. But if,
Philinus, you are against all mixture, do not chide Philo only for the
variety of his