1 30 PHYSICAL SCIENCE BK. in 



being caught can be dug up ! How inconceivable 

 it would sound to them to hear that a fish swam 

 in sauce and was killed during dinner, but not to 

 be served at dinner ; that first it was long admired, 

 and that the eyes were feasted on it before the 

 gullet was ! 



XVIII 



1 SUFFER me here to lay aside my subject, and to 

 apply the scourge to luxury ! Commend me for 

 a beautiful sight, says one, to an expiring mullet. 

 In the death-struggle, as its life ebbs away, first a 

 ruddy glow, then a pallor suffuses it. How sym 

 metrical are the variations as it changes from tint to 

 tint between life and death ! Our somnolent, jaded 

 luxury gets a long respite by means of this. 1 It was 

 late in waking up to find how cruelly it had been 

 circumscribed in being cheated of such a pleasure ! 



2 Hitherto only fishermen have been able to enjoy this 

 grand and beauteous sight. But why should we at 

 the banquet be satisfied with a cooked, a lifeless fish ? 

 Let him expire on the very tray. We used to be 

 surprised at the fastidiousness of our epicures in 

 refusing to touch fish unless it had been caught on 

 the same day, when, as the saying goes, it smacked 

 of the briny. It used for that reason to be delivered 

 post haste way had to be made for the breathless 



3 porters as they hurried along shouting. To what 

 lengths have refinements now been pushed ? A fish 

 killed to-day has come to be considered as already 



1 The passage is almost hopelessly corrupt. The meaning of this sentence 

 seems to be that luxury gets some respite from the fatigues of the table by 

 watching the mullet s death-struggle. Ruhkopf suggests an emendation which 

 would give the sense : Our somnolent, jaded luxury has taken a long time to 

 discover this new enjoyment. That would certainly be well in keeping with 

 the following sentence. 



