Chapter XXIII.
Quemadmodum abundantia umorum genitalium
castigetur.
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Nam
quod semel per escarum
abundantian concretus fuerit in medullis, necesse est egeri atque ab
ipsa naturæ lege propelli, quæ exuberantiam cujuslibet umoris
superflui velut noxiam sibi atque contrariam in semet ipsa residere non
patitur ideoque rationabili semper et æquali est corpus nostrum
parsimonia castigandum, ut si naturali hac necessitate commorantes in
carne omnimodis carere non possumus, saltim rarius nos et non amplius
quamtrina vice ista conluvione respersos totius anni cursus inveniat,
quod tamen sine ullo pruritu quietus egerat sopor, non fallax imago
index occultæ voluptatis eliciat.
Wherefore this is the moderate and even allowance and
measure of abstinence, of which we spoke, which has the approval also
of the judgment of the fathers; viz., that daily hunger should go hand
in hand with our daily meals, preserving both body and soul in one and
the same condition, and not allowing the mind either to faint through
weariness from fasting, nor to be oppressed by over-eating, for it ends
in such a sparing diet that sometimes a man neither notices nor
remembers in the evening that he has broken his fast.
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It has been thought
best to leave the first part of the following chapter untranslated.