by their guests were left upon
record and transmitted to posterity as precedents, not only for
discoursing at table, but also for remembering the things that were
handled at such meetings.

QUESTION I. WHAT IS THE REASON THAT THOSE THAT ARE FASTING ARE MORE
THIRSTY THAN HUNGRY?

PLUTARCH AND OTHERS.

I present you with this Sixth Book of Table Discourses, wherein the
first thing that cometh to be discussed is an inquiry into the reason
why those that are fasting are more inclinable to drink than to eat.
For the assertion carries in it a repugnancy to the standing rules of
reason; forasmuch as the decayed stock of dry nourishment seems more
naturally to call for its proper supplies. Whereupon I told the company,
that of those things whereof our bodies are composed, heat only--or,
however, above all the rest--stands in continual need of such
accessions; for the truth of which this may be urged as a convincing
argument: neither air, water, nor earth requires any matter to feed
upon, or devours whatsoever lies next it; but fire alone doth. Hence
it comes to pass that young men, by reason of their greater share of
natural heat, have commonly greater stomachs than old men; whereas on
the contrary, old men can endure fasting much better, for this only
reason, because their natural heat is grown weaker and decayed. Just so
we see it fares with bloodless animals, which by reason of the want of
heat require very little nourishment. Besides, every one of us finds by
experience, that bodily exercises, clamors, and whatever other actions
by violent motion occasion heat, commonly sharpen our stomachs and get
us a better appetite. Now, as I take it, the most natural and principal
nourishment of heat is moisture, as it evidently appears from flames,
which increase by the pouring in of oil, and from ashes, which are of
the driest things in nature; for after the humidity is consumed by the
fire, the terrene and grosser parts remain without any moisture at all.
Add to these, that fire separates and dissolves bodies by extracting
that moisture which should keep them close and compact. Therefore, when
we are fasting, the heat first of all forces the moisture out of the
relics of the nourishment that remain in the body, and then, pursuing
the other humid parts, preys upon the natural moisture of the flesh
itself. Hence the body like clay becoming dry, wants drink more than
meat; till the heat, receiving strength and vigor by our drink