_Mark_ the _Evangelist_ himself, _James_ our
Lord's Brother. St. _John_, &c. and with several of the devout Sex, the
famous _Diaconesse Olympias_, mention'd by _Palladius_ (not to name
the rest) who abstaining from Flesh, betook themselves to _Herbs_ and
_Sallets_ upon the Account of Temperance, and the Vertues accompanying
it; and concerning which the incomparable _Grotius_ declares ingenuously
his Opinion to be far from censuring, not only those who forbear the
eating _Flesh_ and Blood, _Experimenti Causa_, and for Discipline sake;
but such as forbear _ex Opinione_, and (because it has been the ancient
Custom) provided they blam'd none who freely us'd their Liberty; and I
think he's in the right.
But leaving this Controversie (_ne nimium extra oleas_) it has often
been objected, that _Fruit_, and _Plants_, and all other things, may
since the Beginning, and as the World grows older, have universally
become _Effoete_, impair'd and diverted of those Nutritious and
transcendent Vertues they were at first endow'd withal: But as this is
begging the Question, and to which we have already spoken; so all are
not agreed that there is any, the least [101]_Decay in Nature_, where
equal Industry and Skill's apply'd.
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