ey like those Things that please their Gluttony, but don't
make for their Health.

_Ch._ I have heard of some of the _AEsops_ and _Apitius_'s, that have
look'd upon Fish as the greatest Delicacy.

_Au._ How then do Dainties agree with Punishment?

_Ch._ Every Body han't Lampreys, Scares, and Sturgeons.

_Au._ Then it is only the poor Folks that are tormented, with whom it is
bad enough, if they were permitted to eat Flesh; and it often happens,
that when they may eat Flesh for the Church, they can't for their Purse.

_Ch._ Indeed, a very hard Injunction!

_Au._ And if the Prohibition of Flesh be turned to delicious Living to
the Rich; and if the Poor can't eat Flesh many Times, when otherwise
they might, nor can't eat Fish, because they are commonly the dearer; to
whom does the Injunction do good?

_Ch._ To all; for poor Folks may eat Cockles or Frogs, or may gnaw upon
Onions or Leeks. The middle Sort of People will make some Abatement in
their usual Provision; and though the Rich do make it an Occasion of
living deliciously, they ought to impute that to their Gluttony, and not
blame the Constitution of the Church.

_Au._ You have said very well; but for all that, to require Abstinence
from Flesh of poor Folks, who feed their Families by the Sweat of their
Brows, and live a great Way from Rivers and Lakes, is the same Thing as
to command a Famine, or rather a _Bulimia_. And if we believe _Homer_,
it is the miserablest Death in the World to be starv'd to Death.

_Ch._ So it seem'd to blind _Homer_; but with _Christians_, he is not
miserable that dies well.

_Au._ Let that be so; yet it is a very hard Thing to require any Body to
die.

_Ch._ The Popes don't prohibit the eating of Flesh with that Design, to
kill Men, but that they may be moderately afflicted if they have
transgress'd; or that taking away their pleasant Food, their Bodies may
be less fierce against the Spirit.

_Au._ The moderate Use of Flesh would effect that.

_Ch._ But in so great a Variety of Bodies certain Bounds of Flesh can't
be prescrib'd, a Kind of Food may.

_Au._ There are Fishes that yield much Aliment, and there are Sorts of
Flesh that yield but little.

_Ch._ But in general Flesh is most nourishing.

_Au._ Pray tell me, if you were to go a Journey any whither, would you
chuse a lively Horse that was a little wanton, or a diseased Horse, who
would often stumble and throw his Rider?

_Ch._ What do you mean by that?

_Au._