Are we done with this interminable “meats” section yet? Oh no. No we are not. Now that Burton has cataloged the different kinds of foodstuffs, he is on to just how much of these foodstuffs one should consume:
As a lamp is choked with a multitude of oil, or a little fire with overmuch wood quite extinguished, so is the natural heat with immoderate eating strangled in the body. Perniciosa sentina est abdomen insaturabile, one saith, an insatiable paunch is a pernicious sink, and the fountain of all diseases, both of the body and mind.
Okay, do not eat too much and strangle thyself. But also:
Some are again in the other extreme, and draw this mischief on their heads by too ceremonious and strict diet, by being over-precise, cockney-like, and curious in their observation of meats.
So eat the right amount of food and don’t be cockney-like.
Another pretty special Latin quote from today’s reading: Omnivorous et homicida gula [“all-devouring and murdering gut”]
This post is part of a long, tedious, and very illustrated read-along of Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy. More info here and follow along on Facebook here. Illustrations posted via devon_isadevon on Instagram.