208 FOOD AND FEEDING 



Romans must have been absolutely unlighted by a single 

 ray of joy from chocolate creams or Everton toffee. 



The consequence of this excessive production of sweets 

 in modern times is, of course, that we have begun to dis- 

 trust the indications afforded us by the sense of taste in 

 this particular as to the wholesomeness of various objects. 

 We can mix sugar with anything we like, whether it had 

 sugar in it to begin with or otherwise ; and by sweetening 

 and flavouring we can give a false palatableness to even 

 the worst and most indigestible rubbish, such as plaster-of- 

 Paris, largely sold under the name of sugared almonds to 

 the ingenuous youth of two hemispheres. But in un- 

 touched nature the test rarely or never fails. As long as 

 fruits are unripe and unfit for human food, they are green 

 and sour ; as soon as they ripen they become soft and 

 sweet, and usually acquire some bright colour as a sort of 

 advertisement of their edibility. In the main, bar the acci- 

 dents of civilisation, whatever is sweet is good to eat nay 

 more, is meant to be eaten ; it is only our own perverse 

 folly that makes us sometimes think all nice things bad for 

 us, and all wholesome things nasty. In a state of nature, 

 the exact opposite is really the case. One may observe, 

 too, that children, who are literally young savages in more 

 senses than one, stand nearer to the primitive feeling in 

 this respect than grown-up people. They unaffectedly like 

 sweets ; adults, who have grown more accustomed to the 

 artificial meat diet, don't, as a rule, care much for 

 puddings, cakes, and made dishes. (May I venture paren- 

 thetically to add, any appearance to the contrary notwith- 

 standing, that I am not a vegetarian, and that I am far 

 from desiring to bring down upon my devoted head the 

 imprecation pronounced against the rash person who 

 would rob a poor man of his beer. It is quite possible to 

 believe that vegetarianism was the starting point of the 



