Gourmandise is a passionate preference, well determined and satisfied, for objects which flatter our taste.
Gourmandise is hostile to all excesses: any man who becomes drunk or suffers from indigestion is likely to be expunged from the lists.
Gourmandise also comprehends, friandise (passion for light delicacies) for pastry, comfitures, etc. This is a modification introduced for the special benefit of women, and men like the other sex.
Look at gourmandise under any aspect you please, and it deserves praise.
Physically, it is a demonstration of the healthy state of the organs of nutrition.
Morally, it is implicit resignation to the orders of God, who made us eat to live, invites us to do so by appetite, sustains us by flavor, and rewards us by pleasure.
ADVANTAGES OF GOURMANDISE.
Considered from the points of view of political economy, gourmandise is the common bond which unites the people in reciprocal exchanges of the articles needed for daily consumption.
This is the cause of voyages from one pole to the other, for brandy, spices, sugars, seasonings and provisions of every kind, even eggs and melons.
This it is which gives a proportional price to things, either mediocres, good or excellent, whether the articles derive them out of, or from nature.