The Physiology of Taste by Brillat Savarin (bearly read books txt) đź“–
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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
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