Secundo, quantum comedendum
The Measure of Eating
The novice is taught that the discipline of eating requires each person to discern their own proper measure, since temperance looks different for different bodies, and both the light eater and the heavy eater must guard against their own particular dangers.
Next comes the discipline of watchfulness over how much one ought to eat. The measure of this, as it seems to me, is that you take neither what is improper nor more than you need. Not every stomach holds the same amount. One person is content with a certain portion, while another is content with that same amount — yet they differ.1 The person for whom too little is enough will stumble into excess before reaching the shamefulness of gluttony. But the person for whom much is needed — in that case the decency of eating is often harmed even before excess is reached.2 So the one for whom too little is enough should beware of excess, and the one who needs much should pay closer attention to what is proper. Because the first will not reach shamefulness without first crossing the bounds of temperance, and the second will not rush into excess without first forgetting what is proper.3
Read the original Latin
Deinde sequitur custodia disciplinae in eo quantum quis sumere debeat, cujus mensura haec mihi esse videtur, ut neque contra honestatem neque supra necessitatem. Non omnis venter idem capit, alius sic contentus, alius vero sic. Cui minus sufficit, iste priusquam ad turpitudinem edacitatis perveniat, in superfluitatem offendit; cui multum opus est, in eo saepe honestas comedendi laeditur, etiam priusquam ad superfluitatem veniatur. Ergo ille cui parum satis est, magis superfluitatem caveat; ille tero cui multo opus est, magis ad honestatem attendat, quia neque ille nisi temperantiae metas transierit, ad turpitudinem veniet, neque iste nisi prius honestatis oblitus fuerit, in superfluitatem impinget.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin alius...alius vero sic is compressed and somewhat elliptical. The contrast (vero) seems to highlight that even when two people eat the same amount, their dispositions differ — one is easily satisfied, the other not. The rendering captures the likely intended sense of differing appetites.
- 2 ↩The two priusquam clauses create a parallel: the light eater falls into excess before realizing the shame of gluttony; the heavy eater's propriety is damaged even before reaching excess. The point is that both extremes carry hidden dangers.
- 3 ↩tero (token 10) is almost certainly a scribal error for vero. The normalized text retains tero, but the translation assumes the intended reading is ille vero ('but that one'), parallel to the preceding ille. The sentence structure supports this: two contrasting subjects each with a jussive verb (caveat / attendat), linked by quia.
De Institutione Novitiorum (On the Instruction of Novices) companion
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