and comes off clearly, sound trumpets, fife and drums, the spectators will applaud him, the [1429]bishop himself (if he belie them not) with his chaplain will stand by and do as much, O dignum principe haustum, 'twas done like a prince. Our Dutchmen invite all comers with a pail and a dish, Velut infundibula integras obbas exhauriunt, et in monstrosis poculis, ipsi monstrosi monstrosius epotant, making barrels of their bellies. Incredibile dictu, as [1430]one of their own countrymen complains: [1431]Quantum liquoris immodestissima gens capiat, &c. How they love a man that will be drunk, crown him and honour him for it, hate him that will not pledge him, stab him, kill him: a most intolerable offence, and not to be forgiven. [1432]He is a mortal enemy that will not drink with him, as Munster relates of the Saxons. So in Poland, he is the best servitor, and the honestest fellow, saith Alexander Gaguinus, [1433] that drinketh most healths to the honour of his master, he shall be rewarded as a good servant, and held the bravest fellow that carries his liquor best, when a brewer's horse will bear much more than any sturdy drinker, yet for his noble exploits in this kind, he shall be accounted a most valiant man, for [1434]Tam inter epulas fortis vir esse potest ac in bello, as much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some of our city captains, and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it. Thus they many times wilfully pervert the good temperature of their bodies, stifle their wits, strangle nature, and degenerate into beasts. Some again are in the other extreme, and draw this mischief on their heads by too ceremonious and strict diet, being over-precise, cockney-like, and curious in their observation of meats, times, as that Medicina statica prescribes, just so many ounces at dinner, which Lessius enjoins, so much at supper, not a little more, nor a little less, of such meat, and at such hours, a diet-drink in the morning, cock-broth, China-broth, at dinner, plum-broth, a chicken, a rabbit, rib of a rack of mutton, wing of a capon, the merry-thought of a hen, &c.; to sounder bodies this is too nice and most absurd. Others offend in overmuch fasting: pining adays, saith [1435] Guianerius, and waking anights, as many Moors and Turks in these our times do. Anchorites, monks, and the rest of that superstitious rank (as the same Guianerius witnesseth, that he hath often seen to have happened in his time) through immoderate fasting, have been frequently mad. Of such men belike Hippocrates speaks, l. Aphor. 5, when as he saith, [1436]they more offend in too sparing diet, and are worse damnified, than they that feed liberally, and are ready to surfeit. SUBSECT. III.—_Custom of Diet, Delight, Appetite, Necessity, how they cause or hinder_.