00 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



also contributed to bring it into fashion ; 

 and at the beginning of the Regency it 

 was more universally in use than coffee, 

 inasmuch as it was taken as an agreeable 

 article of food, while coffee still passed 

 only for a beverage of luxury and a curios- 

 ity. It is well known that Linnaeus called 

 the fruit of the cocoa-tree theobroma ' food 

 for the gods.' The cause of this emphatic 

 qualification has been sought, and attributed 

 by some to the fact that he was extrava- 

 gantly fond of chocolate ; by others to his 

 desire to please his confessor ; and by 

 others to his gallantry, a queen having first 

 introduced it into France." 



The Spanish ladies of the New World, it 

 is said, carry their love for chocolate to such 

 a degree that, not content with partaking of it 

 several times a day, they have it sometimes 

 carried after them to church. This favor- 

 ing of the senses often drew upon them the 

 censures of the bishop ; but the Reverend 

 Father Escobar, whose metaphysics were as 



