[5607]  ------“et si
Poscas ante diem librum cum lumine, si non
Intendas animum studiis, et rebus honestis,
Invidia vel amore miser torquebere.”------

       “For if thou dost not ply thy book,
        By candlelight to study bent,
        Employ’d about some honest thing,
        Envy or love shall thee torment.”

No better physic than to be always occupied, seriously intent.

[5608] “Cur in penates rarius tenues subit,
        Haec delicatas eligens pestis domus,
        Mediumque sanos vulgus affectuss tenet?” &c.

       “Why dost thou ask, poor folks are often free,
        And dainty places still molested be?”

Because poor people fare coarsely, work hard, go woolward and bare. [5609] Non habet unde suum paupertas pascat amorem. [5610]Guianerius therefore prescribes his patient “to go with hair-cloth next his skin, to go barefooted, and barelegged in cold weather, to whip himself now and then, as monks do, but above all to fast.”  Not with sweet wine, mutton and pottage, as many of those tender-bellies do, howsoever they put on Lenten faces, and whatsoever they pretend, but from all manner of meat.  Fasting is an all-sufficient remedy of itself; for, as Jason Pratensis holds, the bodies of such persons that feed liberally, and live at ease, [5611]"are full of bad spirits and devils, devilish thoughts; no better physic for such parties, than to fast.”  Hildesheim, spicel. 2. to this of hunger, adds, [5612]"often baths, much exercise and sweat,” but hunger and fasting he prescribes before the rest.  And ’tis indeed our Saviour’s oracle, “This kind of devil is not cast out but by fasting and prayer,” which makes the fathers so immoderate in commendation of fasting.  As “hunger,” saith [5613] Ambrose, “is a friend of virginity, so is it an enemy to lasciviousness, but fullness overthrows chastity, and fostereth all manner of provocations.”  If thine horse be too lusty, Hierome adviseth thee to take away some of his provender; by this means those Pauls, Hilaries, Anthonies, and famous anchorites, subdued the lusts of the flesh; by this means Hilarion “made his ass, as he called his own body, leave kicking,” (so [5614]Hierome relates of him in his life) “when the devil tempted him to any such foul offence.”  By this means those [5615]Indian Brahmins kept themselves continent:  they lay upon the ground covered with skins, as the red-shanks do on heather, and dieted themselves sparingly on one dish, which Guianerius would have all young men put in practice, and if that will not serve, [5616]Gordonius “would have them soundly whipped, or, to cool their courage, kept in prison,” and there fed with bread and water till they acknowledge their error, and become of another mind.  If imprisonment and hunger will not take them down, according to the directions of that [5617] Theban Crates, “time must wear it out; if time will not, the last refuge is a halter.”