The following quote by Jeremy Taylor

asks us to consider the folly of intemperance.

The meaning of intemperance is commonly used to describe

excessive indulgence of bodily appetites—

such as overeating, or more specifically,

the habitual or excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The term can also apply to unrestrained behavior.

It only takes nature’s leftovers.

Once the belly is full and the body wants no more,

any pleasure that follows turns quickly to disgust and loathing.

“Certain it is, intemperance feeds only on nature's leftovers.

When the belly is full, any pleasure that follows is close to disgust.

It is like the taste of rich food at the end of a third course,

or the sweetness of honey to one who has eaten until he can bear no more.

The difference between the intemperate man

and one who dies from another cause is like

the ancient story of the Phalangia:

some serpents were said to make men die laughing,

and others to die weeping.

So the intemperate man and the one wasting away from disease both die certainly;

but one dies laughing, the other weeping.

All his excessive pleasure is nothing but the sting of a serpent

honey mixed with poison.

It wounds the heart, and he dies like one bitten by a tarantula, dancing and singing until he bows his head and kisses his breast with the fatal nodding of death.”

[According to an old European belief, the bite of a tarantula caused people to dance frantically until they collapsed or died.]