their own constitutions, so far as to know what kinds and what
proportions of food do best agree with them.

23. Were I to consider my readers as my patients, and to prescribe such
a kind of temperance as is accommodated to all persons, and such as is
particularly suitable to our climate and way of living, I would copy the
following rules of a very eminent physician. Make your whole repast out
of one dish. If you indulge in a second, avoid drinking any thing strong
till you have finished your meal: at the same time abstain from all
sauces, or at least such as are not the most plain and simple.

24. A man could not be well guilty of gluttony, if he stuck to these few
obvious and easy rules. In the first case, there would be no variety of
tastes to solicit his palate and occasion excess; nor in the second, any
artificial provocatives to relieve satiety, and create a false appetite.
Were I to prescribe a rule for drinking, it should be formed on a saying
quoted by Sir _William Temple:--The first glass for myself, the second
for my friends, the third for good humour, and the fourth for my
enemies_. But because it is impossible for one who lives in the world to
diet himself always in so philosophical a manner, I think every man
should have his days of abstinence, according as his constitution will
permit.

25. These are great reliefs to nature, as they qualify her for
struggling with hunger and thirst, whenever any distemper or duty of
life may put her upon such difficulties; and at the same time give her
an opportunity of extricating herself from her oppressions, and
recovering the several tones and springs of her distended vessels.
Besides that, abstinence well-timed often kills a sickness in embryo,
and destroys the first seeds of an indisposition.