which hath been hitherto said, (for I shall otherwise put most men out of
commons,) and those inconveniences which proceed from the substance of
meats, an intemperate or unseasonable use of them, custom somewhat detracts
and qualifies, according to that of Hippocrates, _2 Aphoris. 50._ [1437]
"Such things as we have been long accustomed to, though they be evil in
their own nature, yet they are less offensive." Otherwise it might well be
objected that it were a mere [1438]tyranny to live after those strict rules
of physic; for custom [1439]doth alter nature itself, and to such as are
used to them it makes bad meats wholesome, and unseasonable times to cause
no disorder. Cider and perry are windy drinks, so are all fruits windy in
themselves, cold most part, yet in some shires of [1440]England, Normandy
in France, Guipuscoa in Spain, 'tis their common drink, and they are no
whit offended with it. In Spain, Italy, and Africa, they live most on
roots, raw herbs, camel's [1441]milk, and it agrees well with them: which
to a stranger will cause much grievance. In Wales, _lacticiniis vescuntur_,
as Humphrey Llwyd confesseth, a Cambro-Briton himself, in his elegant
epistle to Abraham Ortelius, they live most on white meats: in Holland on
fish, roots, [1442]butter; and so at this day in Greece, as [1443]Bellonius
observes, they had much rather feed on fish than flesh. With us, _Maxima
pars victus in carne consistit_, we feed on flesh most part, saith
[1444]Polydore Virgil, as all northern countries do; and it would be very
offensive to us to live after their diet, or they to live after ours. We
drink beer, they wine; they use oil, we butter; we in the north are
[1445]great eaters; they most sparing in those hotter countries; and yet
they and we following our own customs are well pleased. An Ethiopian of old
seeing an European eat bread, wondered, _quomodo stercoribus vescentes
viverimus_, how we could eat such kind of meats: so much differed his
countrymen from ours in diet, that as mine [1446]author infers, _si quis
illorum victum apud nos aemulari vellet_; if any man should so feed with
us, it would be all one to nourish, as Cicuta, Aconitum, or Hellebore