The Ruins; Or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires and the Law of Nature

is tem

us never exceed in our sensations the end of nature

e vice contrar

s, the avidity of all kind of

principal branc

and continenc

law of nature pr

fills all his functions properly; he conducts his business with intelligence; his old age is exempt from infirmity; he does not spend his money in remedies, and he enj

it prohibi

apable of conceiving clear and distinct ideas; he abandons himself with violence to the disorderly impulse of lust and anger, which impair his health; his body beco

nd fasting be consider

ficacious remedies; but when the body is in want of aliment, to refuse it any, and let

ess considered in

taggers and falls as if he were epileptic; he hurts and even risks killing himself; his debility in this state exposes him to the ridicule and contempt of every person that sees him; he makes in his drunkenness, prejudicial an

ture interdict absolu

abuse is easy and prompt among the generality of men, perhaps the legislator

ertain kinds of meat, or of certain vegetable

ers moroseness and melancholy; such another, because it facilitates digestion, creates sprightliness, and an inclination to oblige and to love. The use of vegetables, because they have little nourishment, enfeebles the body, and gives a disposition to repose, indolence, and ease; the use of meat, because it is full of nourishment, and of spirituous liquors, because they stimulate the nerves, creates vivacity, uneasiness, and audacity. Now from those habitudes of aliment result habits of constitution and of the organs, which form afterwards different kinds of temperaments, each of which is distinguished by a peculiar characteris