William Penn. (1644–1718). Fruits of Solitude.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| Part I |
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| Temperance |
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| 59. To this a spare Diet contributes much. Eat therefore to live, and do not live to eat. That’s like a Man, but this below a Beast. | 1 |
| 60. Have wholesome, but not costly Food, and be rather cleanly than dainty in ordering it. | 2 |
| 61. The Receipts of Cookery are swell’d to a Volume, but a good Stomach excels them all; to which nothing contributes more than Industry and Temperance. | 3 |
| 62. It is a cruel Folly to offer up to Ostentation so many Lives of Creatures, as make up the State of our Treats; as it is a prodigal one to spend more in Sawce than in Meat. | 4 |
| 63. The Proverb says, That enough is as good as a Feast: But it is certainly better, if Superfluity be a Fault, which never fails to be at Festivals. | 5 |
| 64. If thou rise with an Appetite, thou art sure never to sit down without one. | 6 |
| 65. Rarely drink but when thou art dry; nor then, between Meals, if it can be avoided. | 7 |
| 66. The smaller 1 the Drink, the clearer the Head, and the cooler the Blood; which are great Benefits in Temper and Business. | 8 |
| 67. Strong Liquors are good at some Times, and in small Proportions; being better for Physick than Food, for Cordials than common Use. | 9 |
| 68. The most common things are the most useful; which shews both the Wisdom and Goodness of the great Lord of the Family of the World. | 10 |
| 69. What therefore he has made rare, don’t thou use too commonly: Lest thou shouldest invert the Use and Order of things; become Wanton and Voluptuous; and thy Blessings prove a Curse. | 11 |
| 70. Let nothing be lost, said our Saviour. But that is lost that is misused. | 12 |
| 71. Neither urge another to that thou wouldst be unwilling to do thy self, nor do thy self what looks to thee unseemly, and intemperate in another. | 13 |
| 72. All Excess is ill: But Drunkenness is of the worst Sort. It spoils Health, dismounts the Mind, and unmans Men: It reveals Secrets, is Quarrelsome, Lascivious, Impudent, Dangerous and Mad. In fine, he that is drunk is not a Man: Because he is so long void of Reason, that distinguishes a Man from a Beast. | 14 |
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