The Physiology of Taste by Brillat Savarin (suggested reading .TXT) 📕

>In Paris there are always more magnificent suppers, which begin

just after the play. The persons who usually attend them are

pretty women, admirable actresses, financiers, and men about town.

There the events of the day were talked of, the last new song was

sung, and politics, literature, etc., were discussed. All persons

devoted themselves especially to making love.

 

Let us see what was done on fast days:

 

No body breakfasted, and therefore all were more hungry than

usual.

 

All dined as well as possible, but fish and vegetables are soon

gone through with. At five o’clock all were furiously hungry,

looked at their watches and became enraged, though they were

securing their soul’s salvation.

 

At eight o’clock they had not a good supper, but a collation, a

word derived from cloister, because at the end of the day the

monks used to assemble to comment on the works of the fathers,

after which they were allowed a glass of wine.

 

Neither butter, eggs, nor any thing animal was served at these

collations. They had to be satisfied with salads, confitures, and

meats, a very unsatisfactory food to such appetites at that time.

They went to bed, however, and lived in hope as long as the fast

lasted.

 

Those who ate these little suppers, I am assured, never fasted.

 

The chef-d’oeuvre of a kitchen of those days, I am assured, was a

strictly apostolic collation, which, however, was very like a good

supper.

 

Science soon resolved this problem by the recognition of fish,

soups, and pastry made with oil. The observing of fasting, gave

rise to an unknown pleasure, that of the Easter celebration.

 

A close observation shows that the elements of our enjoyment are,

difficult privation, desire and gratification. All of these are

found in the breaking of abstinence. I have seen two of my grand

uncles, very excellent men, too, almost faint with pleasure, when,

on the day after Easter, they saw a ham, or a pate brought on the

table. A degenerate race like the present, experiences no such

sensation.

 

ORIGIN OF THE REMOVAL OF RESTRICTION IN FASTING.

 

I witnessed the rise of this. It advanced by almost insensible

degrees.

 

Young persons of a certain age, were not forced to fast, nor were

pregnant women, or those who thought themselves so. When in that

condition, a soup, a very great temptation to those who were well,

was served to them.

 

Then people began to find out that fasting disagreed with them,

and kept them awake. All the little accidents man is subject to,

were then attributed to it, so that people did not fast, because

they thought themselves sick, or that they would be so. Collations

thus gradually became rarer.

 

This was not all; some winters were so severe that people began to

fear a scarcity of vegetables, and the ecclesiastical power

officially relaxed its rigor.

 

The duty, however, was recognised and permission was always asked.

The priests were refused it, but enjoined the necessity of extra

alms giving.

 

The Revolution came, which occupied the minds of all, that none

thought of priests, who were looked on as enemies to the state.

 

This cause does not exist, but a new one has intervened. The hour

of our meals is totally changed; we do not eat so often, and a

totally different household arrangement would be required for

fasting. This is so true, that I think I may safely say, though I

visit none but the best regulated houses, that, except at home, I

have not seen a lenten table, or a collation ten times in twenty-five years.

 

We will not finish this chapter without observing the new

direction popular taste has taken.

 

Thousands of men, who, forty years ago would have passed their

evenings in cabarets, now pass them at the theatres.

 

Economy, certainly does not gain by this, but morality does.

Manners are improved at the play, and at cafes one sees the

journals. One certainly escapes the quarrels, diseases, and

degradation, which infallibly result from the habit of frequenting

cabarets.

 

MEDITATION XXV.

 

EXHAUSTION.

 

BY exhaustion, a state of weakness, languor or depression, caused

by previous circumstances is understood, rendering the exercise of

the vital functions more difficult. There are various kinds of

exhaustion, caused by mental labor, bodily toil and the abuse of

certain faculties.

 

One great remedy is to lay aside the acts which have produced this

state, which, if not a disease, approximates closely to one.

 

TREATMENT.

 

After these indispensable preliminaries, gastronomy is ready with

its resources.

 

When a man is overcome by too long fatigue, it offers him a good

soup, generous wine, flesh and sleep.

 

To a savant led into debility by a too great exercise of his

mental faculties, it prescribes fresh air, a bath, fowl and

vegetables.

 

The following observation will explain how I effected a cure of

another kind of exhaustion. [The translator thinks it best not to

translate this anecdote, but merely to append the original.]

 

CURE BY THE PROFESSOR.

 

J’allai un jour faire visite a un de mes meilleurs amis (M.

Rubat); on me dit qu’il etait malade, et effectivement je le

trouvai en robe de chambre aupres de son feu, et en attitude

d’affaissement.

 

Sa physionomie m’effraya: il avait le visage pale, les yeux

brillants et sa levre tombait de maniere a laisser voir les dents

de la machoire inferieure, ce qui avait quelque chose de hideux.

 

Je m’enquis avec interet de la cause de ce changement subit; il

hesita, je le pressai, et apres quelque resistance: “Mon ami, dit-il en rougissant, tu sais que ma femme est jalouse, et que cette

manie m’a fait passer bien des mauvais moments. Depuis quelques

jours, il lui en a pris une crise effroyable, et c’est en voulant

lui prouver qu’elle n’a rien perdu de mon affection et qu’il ne se

fait a son prejudice aucune derivation du tribut conjugal, que je

me suis mis en cet etat.—Tu as done oublie, lui dis-je, et que tu

as quarante-cinq ans, et que la jalousie est un mal sans remede?

Ne sais-tu pas furens quid femina possit?” Je tins encore quelques

autres propos peu galants, car j’etais en colere.

 

“Voyons, au surplus, continuai-je: ton pouls est petit, dur,

concentre; que vas-tu faire?—Le docteur, me dit-il, sort d’ici;

il a pense que j’avais une fievre nerveuse, et a ordonne une

saignee pour laquelle il doit incessamment m’envoyer le

chirurgien.—Le chirurgien! m’ ecriai-je, garde-t’en bien, ou tu

es mort; chasse-le comme un meurtrier, et dis lui que je me suis

empare de toi, corps et ame. Au surplus, ton medecin connait-il la

cause occasionnelle de ton mal?—Helas! non, une mauvaise honte

m’a empeche de lui fairs une confession entiere.—Eh bien, il faut

le prier de passer cher toi. Je vais te faire une potion

appropriee a ton etat; en attendant prends ceci.” Je lui presentai

un verre d’eau saturee de sucre, qu’il avala avec la confiance

d’Alexandre et la foi du charbounier.

 

Alors je le quittai et courus chez moi pour y mixtionner,

fonctionner et elaborer un magister reparateur qu’on trouvera dans

les Varietes, avec les divers modes que j’adoptai pour me hater;

car, en pareil cas, quelques heures de retard peuvent donner lieu

a des accidents irreparables.

 

Je revins bientot arme de ma potion, et deja je trouvai du mieux;

la couleur reparaissait aux joues, l’oeil etait detendu; mais la

levre pendait toujours avec une effrayante difformite.

 

Le medecin ne tarda pas a reparaitre; je l’instruisis de ce que

j’avais fait et le malade fit ses aveux. Son front doctoral prit

d’abord un aspect severe; mais bientot nous regardant avec un air

ou il y avait un peu d’ironie: “Vous ne devez pas etre etonne,

dit-il a mon ami, que je n’aie pas devine une maladie qui ne

convient ni a votre age ni a votre etat, et il y a de votre part

trop de modestie a en cacher la cause, qui ne pouvait que vous

faire honneur. J’ai encore a vous gronder de ce que vous m’avez

expose a une erreur qui aurait pu vous etre funeste. Au surplus,

mon confrere, ajouta-til en me faisant un salut que je lui rendis

avec usure, vous a indique la bonne route; prenez son potage, quel

que soit le nom qu’il y donne, et si la fievre vous quitte, comme

je le crois, dejeunez demain avec une tasse de chocolat dans

laquelle vous ferez delayer deux jaunes d’oeufs frais.”

 

A ces mots il prit sa canne, son chapeau et nous quitta, nous

laissant fort tentes de nous egayer a ses depens.

 

Bientot je fis prendre a mon malade une forte tasse de mon elixir

de vie; il le but avec avidite, et voulait redoubler; mais

j’exigeai un, ajournement de deux heures, et lui servis une

seconde dose avant de me retirer.

 

Le lendemain il etait sans fievre et presque bien portant; il

dejeuna suivant l’ordonnance, continua la potion, et put vaquer

des le surlendemain a ses occupations ordinaires; mais la levre

rebelle ne se releva qu’apres le troisieme jour.

 

Pen de temps apres, l’affaire transpira, et toutes les dames en

chuchotaient entre elles.

 

Quelques-unes admiraient mon ami, presque toutes le plaignaient,

et le professeur gastronome fut glorifie.

 

MEDITATION XXVI

 

DEATH.

 

Omnia mors poscit; lex est, non poena, perire.

 

God has subjected man to six great necessities: birth, action,

eating, sleep, reproduction and death.

 

Death is the absolute interruption of the sensual relations, and

the absolute annihilation of the vital powers, which abandons the

body to the laws of decomposition.

 

These necessities are all accompanied and softened by a sensation

of pleasure, and even death, when j natural, is not without

charms. We mean when a man has passed through the different phases

of growth, virility, old age, and decrepitude.

 

Had I not determined to make this chapter very short, I would

invoke the assistance of the physicians, who have observed every

shade of the transition of a living to an inert body. I would

quote philosophers, kings, men of letters, men, who while on the

verge of eternity, had pleasant thoughts they decked in the

graces; I would recall the dying answer of Fontinelle, who being

asked what he felt, said, “nothing but the pain of life;” I

prefer, however, merely to express my opinion, founded on analogy

as sustained by many instances, of which the following is the

last:

 

I had a great aunt, aged eighty-three when she died. Though she

had long been confined to her bed, she preserved all her

faculties, and the approach of death was perceived by the

feebleness of her voice and the failing of her appetite.

 

She had always exhibited great devotion to me, and I sat by her

bed-side anxious to attend on her. This, however, did not prevent

my observing her with most philosophic attention.

 

“Are you there, nephew?” said she in an almost inaudible voice.

“Yes, aunt! I think you would be better if you would take a little

old wine.” “Give it to me, liquids always run down.” I hastened to

lift her up and gave her half a glass of my best and oldest wine.

She revived for a moment and said, “I thank you. If you live as

long as I have lived, you will find that death like sleep is a

necessity.”

 

These were her last words, and in half an hour she had sank to

sleep forever.

 

Richerand has described with so much truth the gradations of the

human body, and the last moments of the individual that my readers

will be obliged to me for this passage.

 

“Thus the intellectual faculties are decomposed and pass away.

Reason the attribute of