{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_68053/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_68053","id":"gutenberg_68053","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68053","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Health & Medicine","Category: History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)","Category: Nutrition","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Diet"],"text":"The Frugal Life.\n\n  \u201c_That a Spare Diet is\n  better than a splendid\n  and sumptuous._\u201d\n\n  A PARADOX:\n  _By Ortensio Lando, M.D._\n  1543.\n\n  With Introduction\n  by ....\n  WILLIAM E. A. AXON.\n\n  MANCHESTER.\n  1899.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PARADOX OF A FRUGAL LIFE.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nThe friendship of Nicholas Ferrar, the head of the remarkable\nhousehold at Little Gidding, and of the saintly George Herbert, is a\npleasant episode of seventeenth century history. One of its results\nwas the appearance at Cambridge in 1634 of a little volume, entitled\n\u201cHygiasticon.\u201d This contains a translation, believed to be by Ferrar,\nof the treatise on dietetics by the learned Jesuit, Leonard Lessius,\nGeorge Herbert\u2019s version of Luigi Cornaro\u2019s book on Long Life, and \u201cA\ndiscourse translated out of Italian that a spare diet is better than a\nsplendid and sumptuous.\u201d This version was made by one whose initials,\nT.S., have not been deciphered. The name of the original author was\nequally unknown to bibliographers. It is, in fact, the twenty-fourth of\nthe \u201cParadossi\u201d printed at Lyons in 1543. This book, although it has\nno author\u2019s name attached, is known to be the production of Ortensio\nLando, sometimes known by his Latin name of Hortensius Tranquillus. He\nwas born at Milan about the end of the fifteenth century, and died at\nVenice about 1553. He was a graduate in medicine of the University of\nBologna, and for years led the life of a wandering scholar, but finally\nsettled at Venice where he died. He was the author of fifty or more\nbooks.[A] This seventeenth century version of Lando\u2019s paradox whilst\nnot slavish, makes an excellent presentation of the spirit and aim of\nthe original. In the few places where the English writer has amplified\nthe additional matter is noteworthy. It has, therefore, been thought\nsufficient to modernise the spelling, modify the arrangement and\npunctuation, and substitute here and there a modern word for one that\nsounded less crude in the seventeenth than in the nineteenth century.\n\nWhen a scholar, such as Ortensio Lando was, undertakes to defend\nparadoxes he is not always to be taken too seriously, but in this\npraise of frugal life and simple diet there is an accent of sincerity\nthat carries conviction.\n\n                                                     WILLIAM E. A. AXON.\n\n\n\n\nTHAT A SPARE DIET IS BETTER THAN A SPLENDID AND SUMPTUOUS--A PARADOX.\n\n\nI verily believe, however I have titled this opinion, yet it will by no\nmeans be allowed for a Paradox by a number of those, whose judgement\nought to bear the greatest sway. And, to speak freely, it would seem\nto me very uncouth, that any man that makes a profession of more\nunderstanding than a beast, should open his mouth to the contrary,\nor make any scruple at all of readily subscribing to the truth and\nevidence of this position, that a frugal and simple diet is much better\nthan a full and dainty.\n\nTell me, you that seem to demur on the business, whether a sober and\naustere diet serves not, without further help, to chase away that\nracking humour of the gout, which by all other helps that can be used,\nscarce receives any mitigation at all; but, do what can be done, lies\ntormenting the body, till it have spent itself. Tell me whether this\nholy medicine serve not to the driving away of headache, to the cure\nof dizziness, to the stopping of rheums, to the stay of flukes, to\nthe getting away of loathsome diseases, to the freedom from dishonest\nbelchings, to the prevention of agues, and, in a word, to the clearing\nand draining of all ill humours whatsoever in the body. Nor do the\nbenefits thereof stay only in the body, but ascend likewise to the\nperfecting of the soul itself: for how manifest is it, that through\na sober and strict diet, the mind and all the faculties thereof\nbecome waking, quick, and cheerful, how is the wit sharpened, the\nunderstanding solidated, the affections tempered, and, in a word, the\nwhole soul and spirit of a man freed from encumbrances, and made apt\nand expedite for the apprehension of wisdom, and the embracement of\nvirtue?\n\nThe ancient sages, were, I am sure, of this opinion; and Plato in\nparticular made notable remonstrance of it; when upon his coming into\nSicily from Athens, he did so bitterly condemn the Syracusian tables,\nwhich being furnished with precious and dainty cates, provoking\nsauces, and rich wines, sent away their guests twice a day full of\ngood cheer. But what wouldst thou have said, oh, Plato! if thou hadst\nperhaps lighted upon such as we Christians nowadays are; amongst whom,\nhe that eats but two good meals a day, as we term them, boasts himself,\nand, is applauded by others for a person of great temperance and\nsingular good diet?\n\nUndoubtly, our extravagance in this matter, having added prologues\nof breakfasts, interludes of banquets, epilogues of rere-suppers to\nthe comedy would have caused thee to turn thy divine eloquence to the\npraise of those Syracusion gluttons, which, in respect of our usages\nand customs, might seem great masters of temperance.\n\nNay, very Epicurus himself, however, he may thank Tully\u2019s slanders, his\nname is become in this regard so infamous, yet placed his chief delight\nthis way in no greater dainties than savoury herbs, and fresh cheese.\n\nBut I would fain once understand from these gluttons, that seem born\nonly to waste good meat, what the reason may be, that nowadays the\nstore of victuals is so much abated, and the price enhanced of that\nit was in time of old, when yet the world appears to have been then\nmuch fuller of people than it now is? Undoubtedly, that scarcity\nand dearness under which we labour, can proceed from nothing but\nour excessive gluttony which devours things faster than Nature can\nbring them forth. And that plenty and cheapness, which crowned their\nhappy days, was maintained and kept on foot chiefly through the good\nhusbandry of that frugal and simple diet which they used.\n\nS. Jerome, writing of the course of life held by those good fathers\nthat retired themselves into the deserts of Egypt, the better to serve\nGod, tells us, that they were so enamoured of spare and simple diet,\nthat they censured it in themselves for a kind of riot, to feed on\nanything that was dressed with fire. The same in every point doth\nCassian report, in his relations of the holy monks and hermits of his\ntime.\n\nI find in ancient physicians, that the inhabitants of the old world\nwere such strict followers of sobriety, that they kept themselves\nprecisely to bread in the morning; and at night they made their supper\nof flesh only without addition of sauces, or any first or second\ncourses. And by this means it came to pass, that they lived so long and\nin continual health without so much as once hearing the names of those\nmany grievous infirmities that nowadays vex mankind.\n\nWhat think you might be the cause, that the Romans, the Arcadians,\nand the Portugals passed so many hundred of years, without having any\nacquaintance at all with physic or physicians? Surely nothing else\nbut their sober spare diet, which when all is done, we are ofttimes\nconstrained to undergo, and ever indeed directed and advised unto,\nby those who really practise this divine science of physic, for the\nrecovery and conservation of their patient\u2019s health, and not covetously\nfor their own gain. I read in approved histories, that Ptolemy,\nupon some occasion or other out-riding his followers in Egypt, was\nso pressed with hunger, that he was fain to call in at a poor man\u2019s\ncottage, who brought him a piece of rye-bread; which when he had eaten,\nhe took a solemn oath, that he never in all his life tasted better, nor\nmore pleasing meat: and from that day forward, he set light by all the\ncostly sorts of bread, which he had been formerly accustomed unto.\n\nThe Thracian women, that they might bear healthful, strong, and hardy\nchildren, ate nothing but milk and nettles, and the greatest dainties\nthat the Lacedemonians had amongst them, was a certain kind of black\npottage, that looked no better than melted pitch, and could not by\ncomputation stand in above three half-pence a gallon at the most. The\nPersians, that in their time were the best disciplined people on the\nearth, ate a little Nasturtium[B] with their bread; and that was all\nthe victuals that this brave nation used, when they made conquest of\nthe world.\n\nArtaxerxes, the brother of Cyrus, being overthrown in battle, was\nconstrained in his flight to sit down with dry figs and barley-bread\nwhich upon proof he found so good, as he seriously lamented his\nmisfortune, in having,--through the continual cloying of artificial\ndainties, wherewith he had been bred up,--been so long time a stranger\nto that great pleasure and delight, which natural and simple food\nyields, when it meets with true hunger.\n\nTrue it is, our stomach is a troublesome creditor, and ofttimes\nshamelessly exacts more than its due: but undoubtedly, if we were not\npartial, and corrupted by the allurements of that base content which\ndainties promise, we might easily quiet the grudgings and murmurings\nthereof. It\u2019s not the stomach, I wis, which would rest apayed with\nthat which is at hand; but the satisfaction of our capricious\nfancies, that makes us wear out our selves, and weary all the world\nbesides with uncessant travel in the search of rarities, and in the\ncompounding of new delicacies. If we were but half as wise as we\nought to be, there need none of all this ado that we make, about this\nand that kind of Manchet, Dutch-bread, and French-bread: and I know\nnot what new inventions are brought on foot, to make more business\nin the world; whereas with much less cost and trouble we might be\nmuch better served with that which grows at home, and is to be found\nready in every thatched cottage. That which is most our own, and that\nwhich we therefore perhaps, fools as we be, most contemn in this\nkind,--barley-bread I mean,--is by all the old physicians, warranted\nfor a most sound and healthful food. He that eats daily of it, say\nthey, shall undoubtedly never be troubled with the gout in the feet.\n\nShew me such a virtue in any of these new inventions, and I\u2019ll yield\nthere were some reason perhaps in making use of them, if they might\nwith ease and quiet be procured. But to buy them at the price of so\nmuch pains, time, and hazard as they cost us, undoubtedly too much,\nalthough they brought as much benefit as they do prejudice. Consider\nwell, I pray, whether it be not a thing to make a wise man run beside\nhimself, to see such a ransacking of all the elements by fishers\nand fowlers, and hunters; such a turmoiling of the world by cooks\nand comfit-makers, and tavern-keepers and a numberless many of such\nneedless occupations; such a hazarding of mens lives on sea and land,\nby heat and cold, and a thousand other dangers and difficulties; and\nall forsooth in procuring dainties for the satisfaction of a greedy\nmaw, and senseless stomach, that within a very short while after must\nof necessity make a banquet of itself to worms.\n\nWhat an endless maze of error, what an intolerable hell of torments and\nafflictions hath this wicked gluttony brought the world unto. And yet,\nwretched men that we are, we have no mind to get out of it, but like\nsilly animals led by the chaps, go on all day long, digging our graves\nwith our teeth, till at last we bring the earth over our heads much\nbefore we otherwise need to have done. And yet there was a certain odd\nfellow once in the world, I would there were not too many of the same\nmind nowadays! Philoxenus by name, that seriously wished he might have\na swallow as long and as large as the cranes, the better to enjoy the\nfull relish of his licorish morsels. Long after him, I read of another\nof the same fraternity, Apicius, I trow, that set all his happiness in\ngood cheer: but little credit, I am sure, he hath got by the means; no\nmore than Maximinus, for all he was an Emperor, by his using every meal\nto stuff into his paunch thirty pounds of flesh, beside bread and wine\nto boot. But Geta deserves, in my opinion, the monarchy of gluttons, as\nhe had of the Romans. His feasts went alway according to the letters\nof the alphabet, as when P\u2019s turn came, he would have plovers, and\npartridges, and peacocks, and the like; and so in all the rest, his\ntable was always furnished with meats whose names began with one and\nthe same letter.\n\nBut what do I raking up this carrion? Let them rot in their corruption\nand lie more covered over with infamy than with earth. Only, to give\nthe world notice who have been the great masters of this worthy science\nof filling the stomach and following good cheer, I have been enforced\nto make this remembrance of some of their goodly opinions and pranks.\nWhich let who so will be their partner in: for my part, I solemnly\navow, that I find no greater misery than to victual the camp, as the\nproverb is, cramming in lustily over night, and to be bound next\nmorning to rise early and to go about serious business.\n\nOh what a piece of purgatory is it, to feel within a man\u2019s self those\nqualms, those gripings, those swimmings, and those flashing heats that\nfollow upon over-eating! And what a shame, if our foreheads were not of\nbrass, and our friends before whom we act them, infected with the same\ndisease, would it be to stand yawning, stretching, and perbreaking the\ncrudities of the former day\u2019s surfeit!\n\nOn the contrary, what a happiness do I prove, when after a sober\npittance I find sound and quiet sleep all night long, and at peep of\nday get up as fresh as the morning itself, full of vigour and activity\nboth in mind and body, for all manner of affairs! Let who will take his\npleasure in the fulness of delicates; I desire my part may be in this\nhappy enjoyment of my self, although it should be with the abatement of\nmuch more content than any dainties can afford.\n\nWhen I was last at Messina, my lord Antonio Doria, told me that he\nwas acquainted in Spain with an old man who had lived above a hundred\nyears. One day having invited him home and entertained him sumptuously,\nas his lordship\u2019s manner is, the good old man instead of thanks told\nhim, \u201c_My lord, had I been accustomed to these kind of meals in my\nyouth, I had never come to this age which you see, nor been able to\npreserve that health and strength both of mind and body, which you make\nshew so much to admire in me._\u201d\n\nSee now! here\u2019s a proof even in our age, that the length and happiness\nof men\u2019s lives in the old world was chiefly caused by the means of\nblessed temperance. But what need more words in a matter as evident\nas the sun at noonday, to all but those whose brains are sunk down\ninto the quagmire of their stomachs? I\u2019ll make an end with that which\ncannot be denied, nor deluded, nor resisted; so plain is the truth,\nand so great is the authority of the argument; and this it is: Peruse\nall histories of whatever times and people, and you shall always find\nthe haters of a sober life and spare diet to have been sworn enemies\nagainst goodness and virtue: witness Claudius, Caligula, Heliogabalus,\nClodius the tragedian, Vitellius, Verus, Tiberius, and the like. And on\nthe contrary, the friends and followers of sobriety and frugality to\nhave been men of divine spirits, and most heroical performances for the\nbenefit of mankind; such as were Augustus, Alexander Severus, Paulus\n\u00c6milius, Epaminondas, Socrates, and all the rest who are registered for\nexcellent in the lists of princes, soldiers and philosophers.\n\nA spare diet then is better than a splendid and sumptuous, let the\nSardanapaluses of our age prattle what they list. Nature, and reason,\nand experience, and the example of all virtuous persons prove it to be\nso. He that goes about to persuade me otherwise shall lose his labour,\nthough he had his tongue and brain furnished with all the sophistry and\neloquence that ever Greece and Italy could jointly have afforded.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[A] A full account of his life and works has been prepared for the\nRoyal Society of Literature by the present writer (\u201cTransactions,\n1899\u201d). Those who are interested in Nicholas Ferrar should consult\nProfessor J. E. B. Mayor\u2019s volume devoted to him in \u201cCambridge in the\nSeventeenth Century.\u201d\n\n[B] Cress, or Wild Mint.\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized or underlined text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\n  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.\n\n  The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber and is\n    entered into the public domain.","title":"The Frugal Life: A Paradox","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":2884}