CHAP. II.] DUTY or ATTENTION TO THE BODY. 169 



natiiTe, are commonly too violent to be compounded into a 

 medicine, much more to be mixed with the ordinary food, 

 and must therefore be administered orderly, regularly, and 

 at set periods. 2. We next lay it do^vn as a rule, that the 

 prolongation of life be expected, rather from working upon 

 the spirits, and mollifying the parts, than from the manner 

 of alimentation. For as the human body, and the internal 

 structure thereof, may suffer from three things, viz. the 

 spirits, the parts, and aliments ; the way of i:)rolonging life 

 by means of alimentation is tedious, indirect, and winding ; 

 but the ways of working upon the spirits and the parts, 

 much shorter ; for the spirits are suddenly affected, both by 

 effluvia and the passions, which may work strangely upon 

 them ; and the parts also by baths, unguents, or plasters, 

 which will likewise have sudden impressions. 3. Our last 

 precept is, that the softening of the external parts be 

 attempted by such things as are penetrating, astringent, and 

 of the same nature with the body ; the latter are readily 

 received and entertained, and properly soften ; and pene- 

 trating things are as vehicles to those that mollify, and more 

 easily convey, and deeply impress the virtue thereof; whilst 

 themselves also, in some measure, operate upon the parts : 

 but astringents keep in the virtue of them both, and some- 

 what fix it, and also sfcop perspiration, which would otherwise 

 be contrary to mollifying, as sending out the moisture ; there- 

 fore the whole affair is to be effected by these three means 

 used in order and succession, rather than together. Observe 

 only, that it is not the intention of mollifying to nourish the 

 parts externally, but only to render them more capable of 

 nourishment ; for dry things are less disposed to assimilate. 

 And so much for the prolongation of life, which we make 

 the third, or a new part of medicine. 



The ai-t of decoration, or beautifying, has two parts, civil 

 and effeminate. For cleanliness and decency of the body 

 were always allowed to proceed from moral modesty and 

 reverence ; first, towards God, whose creatures we are ; next, 

 towards society, wherein we live ; and lastly, towards our- 

 selves, whom we ought to reverence still more than others. 

 But false decorations, fucuses, and pigments, deserve the 

 imperfections that constantly attend them ; being neither 

 ex(|uisite enough to deceive, nor coipmodious in application, 



