07. Sweet Is the Natural Taste

Sweet Is the Natural Taste

Sweet is grateful to the new-born infant. It is loved by the youth, by the middle-aged, and by the aged. This taste never dies. In strict keeping with this, we find that the articles, in their great variety, which constitute the healthful diet of man, are palatable by reason of their sweetness. Even of the flesh of fish and birds and animals we say, “How sweet!”

While this taste is universal, it is intensified in hot climates. It is a well-authenticated fact that the love of sweet drinks is a passion among Orientals. For alcohol, in all its combinations, the taste is unnatural and wholly acquired. To the natural instinct it is universally repugnant.

I do therefore most earnestly protest that it is neither fair, nor honest, nor philosophical, to make the acquired, vitiated taste of this alcoholic age, and in cold climates, the standard by which to test the taste of the ancients who lived in hot countries; and, because we love and use alcoholic drinks, therefore conclude that the ancients must also have loved and used them, and only them.