A miscellany of divers problems containing ingenuous solutions of sundry questions, partly moral, partly of other subjects / translated out of French by Henry Some ...

PROB. 9. What is the reason that Water-drink∣ers are greater lovers of fruit then others? (Book 9)

IS it not because water hath a cer∣tain faint quality that offends the stomach, and the juice of fruit cor∣rects that quality, and is to them as a kind of wine which they are not averse from? Or else, doth not the same reason that makes them love water, make them also love fruit, to wit, because they love all things that are moist and cooling, and that fruit as well as water is in the number of things that are most so? Or else, is it not because they which drink wa∣ter only, do with more difficulty di∣gest, and for this reason they love things that are easily digested, such as are most fruits, and prefer them be∣fore viands that give more pain to

the natural heat? And if any de∣mand, Whence it is that they say al∣so, that on the contrary those which are great lovers of wine, do not care at all for fruit: Is it not the contra∣ry to those reasons I now mention∣ed? Or else, do they not hate fruit, because by their moisture, they dull and deaden the palate, and so render it less sensible of the pleasure to which they are so much addicted? Or doth not the same reason for which they love salt and drying meats, make them also hate those that quench the thirst, amongst which it seems fruit holds the first rank?