Letter 1626: If, having failed to obtain what you contested — having been decisively defeated — you now appear to be asking a...

To Besaion. [Editorial heading:] On bodily exercise and on preserving health in food and drink: the maxims of Isocrates the orator and of Hippocrates the physician. (Compare letters 73 and 415.) The very thing that Isocrates advised regarding exercises for those who would keep their health: "Practice the kind of exercises that conduce not to bodily strength but to health." And you would attain this if you stopped your exertions while still able to exert yourself further. If you transfer this same principle also to eating and drinking, and to the other things without which one cannot live, you will be greatly benefited: make use of foods and drinks not with a view to strength, but to those that have health in view. And you would attain this if you stopped eating and drinking while still able to eat and drink further. But if you should say, "Why not those that make for strength?"—I would reply that, in the first place, this is not even true [that they do], but he gave the advice to a lover of learning. And then, because, according to the orator himself, strength when joined with prudence is beneficial, but apart from prudence it harms those who have it. And it seems to adorn the bodies of those who train, yet it [strength] looks down upon [neglects] the cares of the soul. But if you suppose that the sophist [Isocrates], being inexperienced in medicine and not understanding its exactness, decks himself out unbecomingly in another man's craft—know that Hippocrates of Cos too, to whom all give heed, said: "Health is preserved by want of satiety [not eating to the full]." Therefore want has rightly been called the mother of health. And two wise men [of the Seven Sages] gave their sayings, the one, "Nothing in excess," the other, "Measure is best." If then, both in matters of nourishment and of exercises, "a small thing is not a small thing" (yes, for it has health in view), let us guard ourselves, lest by surfeit we dig out [destroy] our health. [Editorial variant readings and notes:] 55) The passage of Isocrates is in the Exhortations, to Demonicus, and Hieronymus Mercurialis, the excellent physician, should be read in his Gymnastica; and that of Hippocrates is from book 5 of the Epidemics, section 4: "Healthful training: to feed short of satiety, not to shun toil." Those maxims below, "Nothing in excess" and "measure is best," Ausonius in his Play of the Seven Sages attributes to Cleobulus of Lindos alone, to Solon truly, and Clement of Alexandria in the first book of the Stromateis writes that it is attributed to Chilon and to a certain Stratodemus of Tegea. Euripides and Terence in the Andria employ it, and in the Adages the Chiliad-author the Batavian [Erasmus] expounds it, as does Isidore above in letters 73 and 415. Theognis moreover at verse 335 joins them thus: "Strive in nothing overmuch: in all things the mean is best." And again at verse 401: "Strive in nothing overmuch: due measure is best in all things." Schott. 56) For "looks upon/oversees" the codices Vatican 650 and Alt. have "casts a shadow over [neglects]." In the second-to-last and last lines of the letter, the codex Vatican 650 alone offers in the margin another reading for "let us guard" [active], namely "let us guard ourselves" [middle voice]. Possin. [Further passage:] And here too, most excellent one, since you distrust the things to come: virtue makes her own lovers more illustrious, whether they should dance the dance of good fortune or of ill fortune. For it [virtue] makes those who fare well more illustrious, and, when difficulty befalls, it will not let them fall down into ignoble dejection, becoming for the one an adornment and for the other a haven.

De corporis exercitatione et valetudine tuenda in cibo potuque, Isocratis oratoris, et Hippocratis medici sententiæ. (Confer epist. 73, 415.) Ὅπερ ἐπὶ τῶν γυμνασίων τὴν ὑγίειαν διατη- ρούντων Ἰσοκράτης παρήνεσεν (55), « Ἄσκει γυ- μνασίων μὴ τὰ πρὸς ῥώμην, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ὑγίειαν συμ- φέροντα. » Τούτου δ’ ἂν ἐπιτύχοις, εἰ λήγοις τῶν πόνων ἔτι πονεῖν δυνάμενος. Τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ βρώσεως καὶ πόσεως, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων, ὧν ἄνευ ζῆν οὐκ ἔστιν, εἰ μετενέγκοις, κομιδῇ ὠφεληθήσῃ· χρῶ τοῖς σιτίοις καὶ πότοις, μὴ τοῖς πρὸς ῥώμην, ἀλλὰ τοῖς πρὸς ὑγίειαν βλέπουσι. Τούτου δ’ ἂν ἐπιτύχοις, εἰ λήγοις ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων, ἔτι φαγεῖν καὶ πιεῖν δυ- νάμενος. Εἰ δὲ φαίης· Διατὶ δὲ μὴ τὰ πρὸς ῥώμην; φαίην, ὅτι μάλιστα μὲν οὐκ ἀληθῇ, ἀλλὰ φιλολόγῳ παρῄναι. Ἐπειδ’ ὅτι καὶ κατ’ αὐτὸν τὸν ῥήτορα, ῥώμη μετὰ μὲν φρονήσεως ὠφελεῖ, ἄνευ δὲ ταύτης τοὺς ἔχοντας βλάπτει. Καὶ τὰ μὲν σώματα τῶν ἀσκούντων κοσμεῖν δοκεῖ, ταῖς δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐπι- μελείαις ἐπισκοπεῖ (56). Εἰ δὲ νομίζεις, τὸν σοφι- στὴν ἰατρικῆς ὄντα ἄπειρον, καὶ τὸ ἀκριβὲς μὴ ἐπι- στάμενον, ἀλλοτρίᾳ τέχνῃ οὐ δεόντως ἐναβρύνεσθαι· ἴσθι, ὅτι καὶ Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, ᾧ πάντες εἴχου- σιν, ἔφη « Τὴν ὑγίειαν διατηρεῖσθαι τῇ ἀκορίᾳ. » Διὸ καὶ ἡ ἐνδεια μήτηρ ὑγιείας εἰκότως εἴρηται. Σοφῷ δὲ ἄνδρε εἰπάτην ὁ μέν, « Μηδὲν ἄγαν » ὁ δέ, « Μέ- τρον ἄριστον. » Εἰ τοίνυν καὶ ἐπὶ τροφῶν, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν γυμνασίων τὸ « παρὰ μικρὸν οὐκ ἔστι μικρὸν » (si; ὑγίειαν γὰρ βλέπει)· φυλάξωμεν, μήποτε τῷ κόρῳ τὴν ὑγίειαν ἐξορύξωμεν. ---VARIAE LECTIONES ET NOTAE--- 55) Isocratis locus est in Παραινέσεις, ad Demo- nicum, legendusque Hieronym. Mercurialis, medi- cus excell., in Gymnasticis : Hippocratis vero, ex lib. v Epidemiorum, sect. 4; « Ἄσκησις ὑγιής · ἀκο- ρῇ τροφῆς, ἀσκητῇ πόνων. Exercitatio sanitatis : vesci citra satietatem, non defugera laborem. Illas infra gnomas Μηδὲν ἄγαν, καὶ μέτρον ἄριστον, uni Cleobulo Lindio tribuit Ausonius, in septem Sapien- tum ludo, Solon vere, Chiloni, et Stratodemo cui- dam Tegeatæ attributum scribit Clemens Alexand. Stromateo primo. Euripides et Terentius in Andria usurpant, et in Adag. Chiliastes exponit Batavus, ut Isidorus supra epp. 73 et 415. Theognis autem vers. 335 sic conjungit : Μηδὲν ἄγαν σπεύδειν · πάντων μέσ’ ἄριστα. Et rursum vers. 401. Μηδὲν ἄγαν σπεύδειν · καιρὸς δ’ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν (ἄριστος.) Schott. 56) Pro ἐπισκοπεῖ codd. Vat. 650 et Alt. habent ἐπισκοτεῖ. Vers. antepen. et pen. ep. cod. solus Vat. 650 aliam lect. offert in marg. pro φυλάξωμεν, nempe φυλαξώμεθα. Possin. Κάνταυθα, ὦ βέλτιστε, ἐπειδὴ τοῖς μέλλουσι δια- πιστεῖς, ἡ ἀρετὴ λαμπροτέρους ἀποφαίνει τοὺς ἑαυ- τῆς ἐραστάς, εἴτε εὐημερίᾳ, εἴτε δυσημερίᾳ χορεύ- σειαν. Εὖ πράττοντας γὰρ λαμπροτέρους, καὶ δυσ- κολίας συμβάσης οὐκ ἀφήσει καταπεσεῖν εἰς ἀγενῆ δυσθυμίαν, τοῖς μὲν κόσμος, τοῖς δὲ ὅρμος γιγνο- μένη.