OSHEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 145 



CHAPTER VII. 



EXPENSE OF DIETARIES. 



§1. Taste Versus Expense in the Choice of Foods. — In an 

 older day men lived to eat ; the gratification of the palate was 

 the sum/mum bonum of life. But the times have changed; life 

 is now seen to be more real and earnest and the table is not 

 its goal. But yet there are those among us who, while holding 

 to the higher and more spiritual ends of existence, still believe 

 that food should be chosen with reference to its taste, to its 

 aesthetic qualities, so to speak, rather than for its nutritive 

 properties. "Eat what you like,' 1 ' these people say ; "this busi- 

 ness of seeing how you can get the greatest nutrition for the 

 least amount of money is unworthy cultured beings." Such 

 persons select their meats, their breads, and their wines prima- 

 rily because they are agreeable to the palate. Among some, 

 the choice of food upon this principle has developed into a fine 

 art. As great pains are taken in planning a bill-of-fare as in 

 painting a picture ; — there must be as great harmony of gusta- 

 tory sensations in the one as of visual sensations in the other. 

 The question of value for money expended does not enter into 

 the construction of a dietary at all with these neo-Epicureans. 



Now, it seems to be a law of our being that what is indiffer- 

 ent, painful, or repugnant cannot exercise a beneficial influence 

 upon us ; that alone which is pleasureable seems to heighten the 

 tide of life. It is probable, too, that of all manner of obnox- 

 ious things distasteful food is the worst ; and so there is really 

 a show of reason in the doctrine, eat what you like. But upon 

 close examination it does not go very far ; it assumes that there 

 is incompatibility in deferring to the pocket-book and to the 

 palate at the same time. The conviction seems to be deeply 

 settled in many people's minds that what is nutritious is not 

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