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A C ET A R I A.

with Men’s Distempers, deriv’dfrom the Causes above-mention’d: And•f Haflc bre- man y Diseases of Horses seem to + contradict it, I am apt to

(speaking of think it much imputableto the Rack and Manger, the dry and wither’dHorses) for- Stable Commons, which they must eat or starve, however qualify’d;debet.iw! being restrained from their natural and spontaneous Choice, which Na-Hifi. Vic. & ture and Instinct directs them to: To these add the closeness of the Air,’thiTthrof'hi ft anc b n g in an almost continued Posture ; besides the fulsom Drenches,controverted? unseasonable Wat’rings, and other Practices of ignorant Horfe-^uacks ,Alacrob. Sa- aftc [ s u rly Grooms: The Tyranny and cruel Usage of their Masters inmm .vii. t j r ‘ n g Journeys, hard labouring, and unmerciful Treatment, Heats,Colds, &c. which wear out and destroy so many of thole useful andgenerous Creatures before the time. Such as have been better us’d, andsome, whom their more gentle and good-natur’d Patrons have in recom-pence of their long and faithful Service, dismiss’d, and lent to Pasturefor the rest of their Lives ( as the Grand Signior does his Meccha-Ca -mel ) have been known to live Forty, Fifty, nay (fays |) Aristotle )^ma'iAv?' no bewer than Sixty five Years. When once Old Far came to changec. 14. his simple homely Diet, to that of the Court and Arundel-Houfe , hequickly funk and dropp’d away : For, as we have Ihew’d, the Stomacheasily concocts plain and familiar Food ; but finds it a hard and difficult!tt " Task to vanquish and overcome Meats of * different Substances:Whence we so often see temperate and abstemious Persons, of a Colle-giate Diet, very healthy; Husbandmen and laborious People, morerobust, and longer liv’d, than others of an uncertain extravagant Diet.

J- Nam variæ res

Ut noceant Homini, credas, memor illius esc a,fipua simplex olim tibi sederit .-

For different Meats do hurt ; remember howWhen to one .Dilh confin’d, thou healthier wast than now;

was Ofellus' s Memorandum in the Poet.

Not that Variety (which God has certainly ordain’d to delight andaflist our Appetite) is unnecessary,nor any thing more grateful,refresh-ing and proper for those especially who lead sedentary and studiousLives; Men of deep Thought, and such as are otherwise disturb’d withsecular Cares and Businesses, which hinders the Function of the Stomachand other Organs; whilst those who have their Minds free, use muchExercise, and are more active, create themselves a natural Appetite,which needs little or no Variety to quicken and content it.

And here might we attest the F atriarchal World; nay, and manyPersons since, who living very temperately, came not much lhort of theFost-diluvians themselves, counting from Abraham to this Day; andsome exceeding them, who liv’d in pure Air, a constant, tho’ coarse andsimple Diet; wholsome and uncompounded Drink; that never tastedBrandy or Exotic Spirits , but us’d moderate Exercise, and observ’dgood Hours: For such a one a curious Mijfionary tells us of in Ferfia ,who hadattain’d the Age of Four hundred Tears , ( a full Century be-yond the famous Johannes de temporibus') and was living Anno i6z6,and so may be still for ought we know. But, to our Sallet.

Certain it is, Almighty God ordaining * Herbs and Fruit for theFood of Men, speaks not a Word concerning Flejh for Two thousandYears. And when after, by the Mosaic Constitution, there were distin-I ctions'

f Hor Sat.

/. ii. Sat. ii.Macr. Sat./vii.

* Gen. ix.