particular man may find
from the taste of some particular thing. This indeed cannot be disputed;
but we may dispute, and with sufficient clearness too, concerning the
things which are naturally pleasing or disagreeable to the sense. But
when we talk of any peculiar or acquired relish, then we must know the
habits, the prejudices, or the distempers of this particular man, and we
must draw our conclusion from those.

This agreement of mankind is not confined to the taste solely. The
principle of pleasure derived from sight is the same in all. Light is
more pleasing than darkness. Summer, when the earth is clad in green,
when the heavens are serene and bright, is more agreeable than winter,
when everything makes a different appearance. I never remember that
anything beautiful, whether a man, a beast, a bird, or a plant, was
ever shown, though it were to a hundred people, that they did not all
immediately agree that it was beautiful, though some might have thought
that it fell short of their expectation, or that other things were still
finer. I believe no man thinks a goose to be more beautiful than a swan,
or imagines that what they call a Friesland hen excels a peacock. It
must be observed too, that the pleasures of the sight are not near so
complicated, and confused, and altered by unnatural habits and
associations, as the pleasures of the taste are; because the pleasures
of the sight more commonly acquiesce in themselves; and are not so often
altered by considerations which are independent of the sight itself. But
things do not spontaneously present themselves to the palate as they do
to the sight; they are generally applied to it, either as food or as
medicine; and from the qualities which they possess for nutritive or
medicinal purposes they often form the palate by degrees, and by force
of these associations. Thus opium is pleasing to Turks, on account of
the agreeable delirium it produces. Tobacco is the delight of Dutchmen,
as it diffuses a torpor and pleasing stupefaction. Fermented spirits
please our common people, because they banish care, and all
consideration of future or present evils. All of these would lie
absolutely neglected if their properties had originally gone no further
than the taste; but all these, together with tea and coffee, and some
other things, have passed from the apothecary's shop to our tables, and
were taken for health long before they were thought of for pleasure. The
effect of the drug