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§ 5. 



Of the Pleasures and Pains of the Taste. 



55. The pleasures and pains perceived by the taste elude 

 every attempt of enumeration by their unlimited variety. 

 Of the pleasing, the sweet is so prominent that it has been 

 metaphorically applied both to beautiful objects and to the 

 most pleasing sounds, and even to moral objects, as temper. 

 Sec. Of the most disagreeable tastes the bitter, the intensely 

 sour, the disgusting, the nauseous, the vapid and insipid are 

 chiefly distinguished : — these also are applied metaphorically 

 to mental pains, censurable moral conduct, temper and ac- 

 tions ; thus we apply bitterness to grief sorrow and remorse ; 

 sourness to ill temper ^ disgusting or nauseous to certain offen- 

 sive indecencies or improprieties ; vapid to spiritless ; and ifi- 

 s/pid or maukish to tasteless characters or compositions. 



54. Delicacy and deUcateness, both denote refinement, being 

 derived from the Latin licium, the fine thread in a weaver's, 

 shuttle. Metaphorically both are applied to exquisite plea- 

 sures received through any of the senses, and also to the ob- 

 jects that aftbrd them. 



55. Delicacies refer principally to such objects as are most 

 relished by the taste ; the sensations they impress are called 



delicious. 



