PLEASURES CAUSED BY TASTE

by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, translated by MFK Fisher

*taste as nature has endowed us with is still that one of our senses which gives us the greatest joy

1 because the pleasure of eating is the only one which, indulged in moderately, is not followed by regret;

2 because it is common to all periods in history, all ages of man, and all social conditions;

3 because it recurs of necessity at least once every day, and can be repeated without inconvenience two or three times in that space of hours;

4 because it can mingle with all the other pleasures, and even console us for their absence;

5 because its sensations are at once more lasting than others and more subject to our will;

6 because, finally, in eating we experience a certain special and indefinable well being, which arises from our instinctive realization that by the very act we perform we are repairing our bodily losses and prolonging our lives