ANIMALS. 51 



in life. This organ with them, from the greater 

 moisture of their bodies, is kept in greater perfec- 

 tion, and is consequently better adapted to per- 

 form its functions. Every person remembers how 

 great a pleasure he found in sweets while a child ; 

 but his taste growing more obtuse with age, he 

 is obliged to use artificial means to excite it. It 

 is then that he is found to call in the assistance of 

 poignant sauces, and strong relishes, of salts and 

 aromatics ; all which the delicacy of his tender 

 organ, in childhood, was unable to endure. His 

 taste grows callous to the natural relishes, and 

 is artificially formed to others more unnatural ; 

 so that the highest epicure may be said to have 

 the most depraved taste ; as it is owing to the 

 bluntness of his organs that he is obliged to have 

 recourse to such a variety of expedients to gratify 

 his appetite. 



As smells are often rendered agreeable by habit, 

 so also tastes may be. Tobacco and coffee, so 

 pleasing to many, are yet at first very disagree- 

 able to all. It is not without perseverance that 

 we begin to have a relish for them ; we force 

 nature so long, that what was constraint in the 

 beginning, at last becomes inclination. 



The grossest, and yet the most useful of all the 

 senses, is that of feeling. We are often seen to 

 survive under the loss of the rest ; but of this we 

 can never be totally deprived, but with life. Al- 

 though this sense is diffused over all parts of the 

 body, yet it most frequently happens that those 

 parts which are most exercised in touching, ac- 

 quire the greatest degree of accuracy. Thus the 



