ss. But
when she comes to call for her golden buttons, her curiously wrought
earrings, and last of all puts on her bewitching girdle, this appears
to be an extravagant and idle curiosity, and betrays too much of
wantonness, which by no means becomes a married woman. Just so they that
sophisticate wine by mixing it with aloes, cinnamon, or saffron bring it
to the table like a gorgeous-apparelled woman, and there prostitute it.
But those that only take from it what is nasty and no way profitable
do only purge it and improve it by their labor. Otherwise you may find
fault with all things whatsoever as vain and extravagant, beginning at
the house you live in. As first, you may say, why is it plastered?
Why does it open especially on that side where it may have the best
convenience for receiving the purest air, and the benefit of the evening
sun? What is the reason that our cups are washed and made so clean that
they shine and look bright? Now if a cup ought to have nothing that is
nasty or loathsome in it, ought that which is drunk out of the cup to
be full of dregs and filth? What need is there for mentioning anything
else? The making corn into bread is a continual cleansing; and yet what
a great ado there is before it is effected! There is not only threshing,
winnowing, sifting, and separating the bran, but there must be kneading
the dough to soften all parts alike, and a continual cleansing and
working of the mass till all the parts become edible alike. What
absurdity is it then by straining to separate the lees, as it were the
filth of the wine, especially since the cleansing is no chargeable or
painful operation?

QUESTION VIII. WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF BULIMY OR THE GREEDY DISEASE?

PLUTARCH, SOCLARUS, CLEOMENES, AND OTHERS.

There is a certain sacrifice of very ancient institution, which the
chief magistrate or archon performs always in the common-hall, and every
private person in his own house. 'Tis called the driving out of bulimy;
for they whip out of doors some one of their servants with a bunch of
willow rods, repeating these words, Get out of doors, bulimy; and enter
riches and health. Therefore in my year there was a great concourse of
people present at the sacrifice; and, after all the rites and ceremonies
of the sacrifice were over, when we had seated ourselves again at the
table, there was an inquiry made first of all into the signification of
the word bulimy, then into the meaning of the words which are