Hiero

Don’t you think, Simonides, that the greater a man’s pleasure in any occupation the stronger is his devotion to it?Certainly.Then do you notice that despots fall to their meal with any more zest than private persons to theirs?No, no, of course not; I should rather say with more disgust, according to the common opinion.

Well now, said Hiero, have you observed all those pickles and sauces that are put before despots—acid, bitter, astringent and so forth? Yes, certainly; and very unnatural cates I think them for human beings.

Don’t you look on these condiments, then, as mere fads of a jaded and pampered appetite? I know well enough, and I expect you know too, that hearty eaters have no need of these concoctions.

Well, I certainly think that those costly unguents with which you anoint your bodies afford more satisfaction to those who are near you than to yourselves, just as the man who has eaten rank food is less conscious of the disagreeable smell than those who come near him.

Quite so, and we may add that he who has all sorts of food at all times has no stomach for any sort. Offer a man a dish that he seldom tastes, and he eats a bellyful with gusto.