urable things, though the
corporeal senses are the judges of them, are still to be referred to the
mind, on which account the body rejoices, whilst it perceives a present
pleasure; but that the mind not only perceives the present as well as the
body, but foresees it, while it is coming, and even when it is past will
not let it quite slip away. So that a wise man enjoys a continual series
of pleasures, uniting the expectation of future pleasure to the
recollection of what he has already tasted. The like notions are applied
by them to high living; and the magnificence and expensiveness of
entertainments are deprecated, because nature is satisfied at a small
expense.

XXXIV. For who does not see this, that an appetite is the best sauce? When
Darius, in his flight from the enemy, had drunk some water which was muddy
and tainted with dead bodies, he declared that he had never drunk anything
more pleasant; the fact was, that he had never drunk before when he was
thirsty. Nor had Ptolemy ever eaten when he was hungry: for as he was
travelling over Egypt, his company not keeping up with him, he had some
coarse bread presented him in a cottage: upon which he said, "Nothing ever
seemed to him pleasanter than that bread." They relate too of Socrates,
that, once when he was walking very fast till the evening, on his being
asked why he did so, his reply was that he was purchasing an appetite by
walking, that he might sup the better. And do we not see what the
Lacedaemonians provide in their Phiditia? where the tyrant Dionysius
supped, but told them he did not at all like that black broth, which was
their principal dish; on which he who dressed it said, "It was no wonder,
for it wanted seasoning." Dionysius asked what that seasoning was; to
which it was replied, "Fatigue in hunting, sweating, a race on the banks
of Eurotas, hunger, and thirst:" for these are the seasonings to the
Lacedaemonian banquets. And this may not only be conceived from the custom
of men, but from the beasts, who are satisfied with anything that is
thrown before them, provided it is not unnatural, and they seek no
farther. Some entire cities, taught by custom, delight in parsimony, as I
said but just now of the Lacedaemonians. Xenophon has given an account of
the Persian diet; who never, as he saith, use anything but cresses with
their bread, not but that, should nature require anything more agreeable,
many things might be easily supplied by the ground, and plan