Abstem. So long as thou hast the wine in the beaker, it is in thy power; when thou hast it in thy body, thou art in the power of the wine. Then you are held and do not hold. When you drink, you treat wine as you like. When you have drunk, it will treat you as it likes.
Asot. What then? Are we never to drink?
Abstem. When fools avoid their vices, they run into the opposite extremes. We must, indeed, quench thirst, but not be “drinkers.” Nature on this point teaches beasts alone. The same nature will not teach man, because he possesses reason. You eat when you are hungry; you drink when you are thirsty. Hunger and thirst will warn you how much, when, to what extent, we must eat and drink.
Asot. What if I am always thirsty, and if I cannot assuage my thirst except by getting drunk?
Abstem. Then drink what cannot possibly make you drunk.
Asot. The constitution of my body won’t permit that.
Abstem. If then you had such hunger that by no amount of food you could satisfy it unless you were to burst yourself, what then?
Asot. That indeed would not be hunger, but disease.
Abstem. There would surely be need of medicine, not meals, to take away that hunger, wouldn’t there?