A sound man, who is both in health, and his own master, ought to confine himself to no rules; and neither call for the assistance of a physician nor an iatroalipta(16). ’Tis good for him to diversify his way of life; to be sometimes in the country, sometimes in the city, and frequently in the fields; to sail, to hunt; sometimes to rest, but exercise himself frequently: for indolence enervates the body, labour strengthens it: the first brings on a quick old age, the other makes a long youth. ’Tis also proper to make use sometimes of the warm bath(17), and sometimes of the cold; to anoint sometimes, and at other times to neglect it; to avoid no kind of food, that may be in common use; sometimes to eat in company, at other times to retire from it; sometimes to eat more than is sufficient, and at other times no more; to take food rather twice in the day than once; and always as much as he can, provided he concoct it. But as exercise and food of this kind are necessary, so the exercise and diet of wrestlers are inconvenient: both because the order of exercise being interrupted by some necessary business of life, hurts the body; and because those bodies, which are very high fed, like their’s, soonest decay, and are most liable to diseases.

Coition is neither to be too much desired, nor too much feared. Seldom used, it excites the body; frequent, relaxes. But as the frequency is to be judged of, not by the number of repetitions, but by nature, regard being had to the age and constitution, we may know it not to be useless, when it is neither followed by a languor of the body, nor pain. It is worse in the day-time, but safer in the night; but the general rule will hold for both, if neither meat be taken after the first, nor the other be followed by wakefulness and labour. These things are to be observed by strong people; and care must be taken, that the reliefs of sickness be not wasted in good health.