CHAPTER VII 



CHANGE OF DIET 



BRILLAT^SAVARIN, when pronounc- 

 ing his famous maxim, " Tell me what 

 you eat and I will tell you what you are," cer- 

 tainly never suspected the signal confirmation 

 which the entomological world would be- 

 stow upon his saying. Our gastrosopher 

 was speaking only of the culinary caprices 

 of man rendered fastidious by the sweets 

 of life; but he might, in a more serious de- 

 partment of thought, have given his formula 

 a wider and more general bearing and ap- 

 plied it to the dishes which vary so greatly 

 according to latitude, climate and customs; 

 he might above all have taken into his reck- 

 oning the harsh realities suffered by the com- 

 mon people, when perhaps his ideal of moral 

 worth would have been found in a platter of 

 chick-peas oftener than in a pot of pate de 

 foie gras. No matter: his aphorism, the 

 mere whimsical sally of an epicure, becomes 

 an imperious truth if we forget the luxury 

 of the table and look into what is eaten by 

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