A truce to gluttons. Let us speak of epicureans.
It is to them that gastronomic civilization owes the laws by which it is regulated; they were the legislators of the table: they introduced regularity and order at repasts. The breakfast, dinner, collation, and supper were created by those sages. Fashion has often modified the nomenclature, but assuredly it will never be able to supersede it.
The Greeks submitted to it for many years;[XXIX_25] and then, that fickle people, whom everything wearied, declined the drudgery of masticating so frequently. The lower orders and the army eat twice a day;[XXIX_26] the fashionable people contented themselves with one repast,[XXIX_27] which some had served at mid-day,[XXIX_28] but the greater part just before sunset.[XXIX_29] The party of resistance had, as yet, yielded only on one point—the collation; and they continued bravely to breakfast, dine, and sup.[XXIX_30] But the monophagists were not sparing in their jokes, and the new fashion triumphed at last over the prescription of ancient usages.[XXIX_31] Pagan sobriety was doubtless far from suspecting that the Book of Ecclesiastes, in accordance with it on this subject, pronounces an anathema against the kingdom whose princes eat in the morning.[XXIX_32]
The Greek manners were introduced in Rome, and persons of a certain rank, who did not make a profession of gluttony, gave themselves up to the pleasures of the table only once a day.[XXIX_33]
The tyranny of fashion was not, however, such that all persons thought themselves bound to obey it under pain of being shamed and ridiculed. Many unscrupulously transgressed its laws, and more than one respectable Greek of good family, following the example of Ulysses, who prepared his breakfast at sun-rise,[XXIX_34] had the acratism brought so soon as the crowing of the cock announced the return of day.[XXIX_35] This frugal breakfast was composed of bread steeped in pure wine.[XXIX_36] The adults restricted themselves to this slight repast, but the children received more substantial nourishment.[XXIX_37]
The Romans, when they were not asleep, breakfasted at three or four o’clock in the morning.[XXIX_38] A little bread and cheese,[XXIX_39] or dry fruits,[XXIX_40] enabled them to wait for the solemn hour of the banquets.
It would appear that the Jews dined at mid-day;[XXIX_41] it was the hour at which St. Peter was hungry.[XXIX_42] This repast took place also among the Greeks about the middle of the day,[XXIX_43] if we are to believe Athenæus. However, Cicero relates that the philosopher Plato appeared to be very much astonished, when travelling in Italy, to see the inhabitants eat twice every day.[XXIX_44] It will only be necessary to repeat that the supper alone formed the rule, and that the breakfast and dinner were exceptions; they depended entirely upon the casualties of will.
About mid-day[XXIX_45] the sober Romans had a slight collation.[XXIX_46] Seneca, who never loses sight of himself in his fastidious treatises on wisdom, informs us that a little bread and a few figs were all that his virtue required.[XXIX_47]
The senators, the knights, and the luxurious freed-men, spared no expense either for dinner or supper. The priests of Mars, of whom we have already spoken, set them an example too seductive for them not to follow it.[XXIX_48] It is to be remarked, by the way, that those worthy ministers of the god of war took this repast in the most secret part of their temple, where they hardly allowed any one to come and interrupt them. This gastronomic quietude was also very much the taste of a celebrated modern sailor, the Bailiff de Suffrein. He was at dinner in Achem, India, when a deputation from the town was announced. Being a witty glutton, he conceived the happy thought of sending word to the importunate troop that an article of the Christian religion expressly prohibited every Christian from occupying himself with anything besides eating, that function being of the most serious importance. This reply singularly edified the deputation, who retired with respect, admiring the extreme devotion of the French general.[XXIX_49]
The collation—merenda—was little in use. It took place about the end of the day, before supper, particularly in summer, among the workmen and farm labourers.[XXIX_50]