r now thinks it high time to take Care of himself, to
believe that the seldomer the Physician or Apothecary are employ'd, the
less Risque he runs in his Health or Fortune, that he is not upon every
slight Indisposition, or ordinary Sickness to call upon their Help,
whereby very often the Remedy proves worse than the Disease; that your
Constitution will endeavour to preserve it self, and will effect it in
most of the common Distempers, but with ill Medicines those will become
dangerous, and will be made every Day more malignant. Take the Counsel of
your most observing and experienced Friend, who has no Byass to divert him
from the only Care of your Health; but avoid the Emperick, who will,
instead of procuring the Ease of your Thoughts and Repose, and prescribing
the Rules of your Diet, and permitting Nature to subdue the Disease,
affright you with the greatest Danger, disturb you, and fill your Chamber,
or both, with the inflaming and pernicious Cordials, the Bolus's and
Draughts, till he has cured his own Distemper by the Number of Articles he
shall enter into the Bill.

That it is in the Power of every Man to become his own Physician, who
needs no other Helps of supporting a good, and correcting a bad
Constitution, than by observing a sober and regular Life; there is nothing
more certain, than that Custom becomes a second Nature, and has a great
Influence upon our Bodies, and has too often more Power over the Mind than
Reason it self?

The honestest Man alive, in keeping Company with Libertines, by degrees
forgets the Maxims of Probity he before was used to, and naturally falls
into those Vices with his Companions; and if he be so happy as to acquit
himself, and to meet with better Company, then Virtue reassumes its first
Lustre, and will triumph in its Turn, and he insensibly regains the Wisdom
that he had abandoned.

In a Word, all the Alterations that we perceive in the Temper, Carriage,
and Manners of most Men, have scarce any other Foundation, but the Force
and Prevalency of Custom.

'Tis an Unhappiness in which the Men of this Age are fall'n, that Variety
of Dishes is now the Fashion, and become so far preferable to Frugality;
and yet the one is the Product of Temperance, whilst Pride and
unrestrain'd Appetite is the Parent of the other.

Notwithstanding the Difference of their Origin, yet Prodigality is at
present stiled Magnificence, Generosity and Grandeur, and is commonly
esteem'd of in the World, whils