Advice About Keeping Well (15-19)

ZEUXIPPUS. It is very profitable when visiting sick friends to inquire of them the causes of their illness, not by talking pedantically and officiously about stoppages, irruptions, and trite generalities, and incidentally displaying some acquaintance with medical terminology and literature, but by listening in no perfunctory way to these homely and common details of overeating, exposure to the sun, fatigue, sleeplessness, and especially the manner of living which the man was following when he fell sick of the fever. Then, like Plato, who, on his way home, was accustomed to say on the subject of others’ faults, Am not I too possibly like them? [*] a man ought to correct in himself the faults he observes in his neighbours, and be watchful and mindful not to become involved in the same difficulties, and be himself compelled to take to his bed, and there give voice to his yearnings for precious health, but rather, when another is undergoing this experience, he will impress upon himself how valuable a thing is health, and that he ought to try to preserve this by giving heed to himself, and by being frugal. It is not a bad thing, either, to take a look at our own way of living; for if we have been engaged in a bout of drinking and eating, or in some hardships and other irregularities, and the body presents no suspicious or premonitory symptoms, nevertheless we ought to be watchful of ourselves and forestall any trouble by means of rest and quiet when fresh from the pleasures of love, or when fatigued; also by drinking water after the free use of wine and after social gaiety, and especially, after indulging in a heavy diet of meat or multifarious foods, to eat lightly, and leave no mass of superfluous residue in the body. For these very things are of themselves the causes of many diseases, and they add material and potency to the other causes.[*] Wherefore it has been very well said, Eating not unto satiety, labouring not unto weariness, and observance of chastity, are the most healthful things. [*] For incontinence, by undermining especially the powers by which the food is assimilated, causes further superfluity and overcrowding.

ZEUXIPPUS. Let us now take up each topic anew once more; and in the first place, on the subject of exercises suitable for scholars, we beg to remark that one might follow the example of the man who, by saying that he had nothing to write for people dwelling by the sea on the subject of ships, showed clearly that they were in use; and so in the same way one might say that he was not writing for scholars on the subject of exercise. For it is wonderful what an exercise is the daily use of the voice in speaking aloud, conducing, not only to health, but also to strength — not the strength of the wrestler which lays on flesh and makes the exterior solid like the walls of a building, but a strength which engenders an all-pervasive vigour and a real energy in the most vital and dominant parts. That breathing gives strength the athletic trainers make clear in telling the athletes to brace themselves against the rubbing and stop their breath meantime, and keep tense the portions of the body that are being kneaded and massaged. Now the voice is a movement of the breath, and if it be given vigour, not in the throat, but, as it were, at its source in the lungs, it increases the warmth, tones down the blood, clears out every vein, opens every artery, and does not permit of any concretion or solidifying of superfluous fluid like a sediment to take place in the containing organs which take over and digest the food. For this reason we ought especially to make ourselves habituated and used to this exercise by continual speaking, or, if there be any suspicion that our body is not quite up to the mark or is somewhat fatigued, then by reading aloud or declaiming. For reading stands in the same relation to discussion as riding in a carriage to active exercise, and as though upon the vehicle of another’s words it moves softly, and carries the voice gently this way and that. But discussion adds contention and vehemence, as the mind joins in the encounter along with the body. We must, however, be cautious about passionate and convulsive vociferations. For spasmodic expulsion and straining of the breath produces ruptures and sprains.

ZEUXIPPUS. After reading or discussion, before going to walk, one should make use of rubbing with oil in a warm room to render the flesh supple, extending the massage so far as practicable to the inward parts, and gently equalizing the vital spirit and diffusing it into the extremities. Let the limits of the amount of this rubbing be what is agreeable to the senses and not discomforting. For the man who thus composes the inward disquiet and tension in his vital spirit manages the superfluous in his body without discomfort, and if unfavourable weather or some engagement prevent his going to walk, it does not matter, for Nature has received her proper due. Wherefore neither travelling nor stopping at an inn ought to be made an excuse for silence, nor even if everybody there deride one. For where it is not disgraceful to eat it is certainly not disgraceful to take exercise; nay, it is more disgraceful to feel timid and embarrassed before sailors, muleteers, and innkeepers, who do not deride the man who plays ball and goes through the movements of sparring alone, but the man who speaks, even though in his exercises he instruct, question, learn, and use his memory. Socrates said [*] that for a man’s movements in dancing a room that would accommodate seven persons at dinner was large enough to take exercise in, but for a man who takes his exercise through singing or speaking every place affords him adequate room for this exercise both when standing up and when lying down. But we must observe this one caution — not to strain our voices too hard when we are conscious of a fullness, venery, or fatigue. This is the experience of many of the public speakers and sophists, some of whom are led on by repute and ambition, others on account of emoluments or political rivalries, to competition in excess of what is best for them. Our Niger, when he was giving public lectures in Galatia, happened to swallow a fish bone. But, as another sophist from abroad had made his appearance and was lecturing, Niger, dreading to give the impression that he had yielded to his rival, still lectured although the bone was sticking in his throat; unable to bear the distress from the great and stubborn inflammation that arose, he submitted to a deep incision from the outside, and through the opening the bone was removed; but the place grew sore and purulent and caused his death. But comment on these matters may well be postponed to a later occasion. [*]

ZEUXIPPUS. To take a cold bath after exercising is ostentatious and juvenile rather than healthful. For the power of resistance to external influences and the hardiness which it seems to create in the body really produces a more evil effect on the inward parts by stopping up the pores, causing the fluids to collect together, and condensing the exudations which are always wanting to be released and dispersed. Besides, those who insist upon taking cold baths have to make a further change into that exact and strictly ordered way of living which we are trying to avoid, and they have to be always taking heed not to transgress this, since every shortcoming is at once bitterly brought to book. On the other hand, warm baths have much to offer by way of excuse. For they do not detract so much from vigour and strength as they help towards health by rendering the food yielding and soft for the digestion, and by providing for the painless dispersion of whatever escapes digestion, at least if it do not remain altogether crude and high up, and soothing any latent feelings of fatigue. However, when Nature affords us a sense of a moderate and comfortable condition in our body, the bath had better be left alone. A gentle rubbing with oil beside a fire is better, if the body require warming, for it can take for itself the requisite amount of such warmth; but the sun permits the use of its warmth at neither higher nor lower temperature than is determined by the temperature of the air. So much will suffice in regard to exercise.

ZEUXIPPUS. Coming now to the subject of food, if there be anything helpful in my earlier suggestions as to how we may beguile and pacify our appetites, we must give some further advice regarding what comes next; but if it be difficult to manage a belly that has been set free, as it were from bondage, and to wrangle with it when it has no ears to hear, as Cato [*] used to say, we must contrive by means of the character of our food to make the quantity less burdensome; and of the solid and very nourishing foods, things, for example, like meat and cheese, dried figs and boiled eggs, one may partake if he helps himself cautiously (for it is hard work to decline all the time), but should stick to the thin and light things, such as most of the garden stuff, birds, and such fish as have not much fat. For it is possible by partaking of these things both to gratify the appetites and not oppress the body. Especially to be feared are indigestions arising from meats [*]; for they are depressing at the outset, and a pernicious residue from them remains behind. It is best to accustom the body not to require meat in addition to other food. For the earth yields in abundance many things not only for nourishment but also for comfort and enjoyment, some of which it grants to our use just as they are with no trouble on our part, while others we may make savoury by all sorts of combination and preparation. But since custom has become a sort of unnatural second nature, our use of meat should not be for the satisfaction of appetite, as is the case with wolves or lions; but while we may put it in as a sort of prop and support of our diet, we should use other foods and relishes which for the body are more in accord with nature and less dulling to the reasoning faculty, which, as it were, is kindled from plain and light substances.

ZEUXIPPUS. Of the liquids milk ought not to be used as a beverage but as a food possessing solid and nourishing power. With regard to wine we ought to talk as does Euripides [*] with regard to Love:

May est thou be mine, but moderate be, I pray, yet ne’er abandon me.

For wine is the most beneficial of beverages, the pleasantest of medicines, and the least cloying of appetizing things, provided that there is a happy combination of it with the occasion as well as with water. Water, not only the water that is mixed with [*] the wine, but that which is drunk by itself in the interim between the draughts of the mixture, makes the mixture more innocent. One ought to accustom oneself, therefore, in the course of the daily routine to partake of two or three glasses of water, thus both making the potency of the wine milder, and making the drinking of water habitual with the body, so that, whenever it comes to be in need of water, it may not feel strange towards the drink, and refuse it. For the fact is that some people feel most impelled towards wine when the drink which they most need is water. For after being exposed to the sun, and again when chilled, and after speaking more earnestly and thinking more intently than usual, and, in general, after exertions and strivings, they think they ought to drink wine, feeling that Nature requires for the body some comfort and change after labours. But Nature does not require comfort, if comfort is only a name for self-indulgence, but she does require a change, a change which puts the body in a state midway between pleasure and pain. Therefore in such circumstances there should not only be some reduction in food, but wine should be either altogether eliminated or else partaken of between times very diluted and practically engulfed by the drinking of water. For wine, being truculent and keen, intensifies the disturbances of the body, and exacerbates and irritates the contused parts, which are in need of the comfort and alleviation that water best supplies. For if, in spite of the fact that we are not thirsty, we drink hot water after undergoing exertion, strain, or heat, we are sensible of a relaxing and soothing effect within us; for the aqueous fluid is mild and does not quicken the pulse, whereas that of wine has great impetuosity and a potency that is not kindly or humanely disposed toward recent affections. As for the acerbities and bitterness which some say fasting engenders in the body, if anybody fears them, or if, childlike, he thinks it a dreadful thing not to have a meal served before the fever which he suspects is coming, the drinking of water is a very fitting middle course. In fact we frequently make to Dionysus himself offerings which include no wine, thus habituating ourselves quite properly not to be always looking for strong drink. Minos, too, because of grief, abolished the flute and garland from the sacrifice.[*] Yet we know that a grieving soul is not affected either by garlands or by flute. But no one’s body is so strong that wine, thrust upon it when it is disturbed and feverish, does it no harm.