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

To Domitius the Count. What Isocrates advised concerning the exercises that preserve health — "Practice not the exercises that produce strength, but those that contribute to health" — you would achieve this if you ceased from your labors while still able to continue. This same principle, if you applied it to eating and drinking and to the other necessities without which one cannot live, would greatly benefit you: use foods and drinks that look not to strength but to health. You would achieve this if you ceased eating and drinking while still able to eat and drink more. If you should ask, "Why not those that produce strength?" — I would reply that, first, Isocrates was advising not an athlete but a man of letters. And second, as the orator himself says, strength with prudence benefits, but without it harms its possessors. It seems to adorn the bodies of those who train, but it hinders the care of the soul. If you think the sophist, being ignorant of medicine and not knowing its exactness, was improperly adorning himself with another's art, know that Hippocrates of Cos, to whom all defer, said: "Health is preserved by not being sated." Hence fasting has rightly been called the mother of health. Two wise men have said — one, "Nothing in excess," the other, "Moderation is best." If therefore in matters of food and exercise "the small margin is not small" — for it looks to health — let us be on guard lest through satiety we banish our health.

ΦΚΗ. – ΔΟΜΙΤΙΟ ΚΟΜΗΤΙ. Ὅπερ ἐπὶ τῶν γυμνασίων τῶν τὴν ὑγίειαν διατη- ρούντων Ἰσοκράτης παρήνεσεν (55), « "Ασκει 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 ζῇν 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 · Διατί δὲ μὴ τὰ πρὸς ῥώμην; φαίην, ὅτι μάλιστα μὲν οὐκ ἀθλητῇ, ἀλλὰ φιλολόγῳ παρήναι. Επειθ' 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 εἶκου- σιν, ἔφη « Τὴν ὑγίειαν διατηρεῖσθαι τῇ ἀκορίῃ. » Διὸ καὶ ἡ· ἔνδεια μήτηρ ὑγιείας εἰκότως εἴρηται. Σοφὼ δὲ ἄνδρε εἰπᾶτην ὁ μὲν, « Μηδὲν ἄγαν» ὁ δὲ, «Μέ- τρον ἄριστον. » Εἰ τοίνυν καὶ ἐπὶ τροφῶν, καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν γυμνασίων τὸ ε παρὰ μικρὸν οὐκ ἔστι μικρὸν » (εἰς ὑγίειαν γὰρ βλέπει)· φυλάξωμεν, μήποτε τῷ κόρῳ τὴν ὑγίειαν ἐξορίσωμεν. ```