And yet even if we were to consider merely the pleasure to be derived from eating and drinking, the same rule would hold good. A lunch of bread and cheese after a good walk is more enjoyable than a Lord Mayor's feast. Without wishing, like Apicius, for the neck of a stork, so that he might enjoy his dinner longer, we must not be ungrateful for the enjoyment we derive from eating and drinking, even though they be amongst the least aesthetic of our pleasures. They are homely, no doubt, but they come morning, noon, and night, and are not the less real because they have reference to the body rather than the soul.
We speak truly of a healthy appetite, for it is a good test of our bodily condition; and indeed in some cases of our mental state also. That
"There cometh no good thing
Apart from toil to mortals,"
is especially true with reference to appetite; to sit down to a dinner, however simple, after a walk with a friend among the mountains or along the shore, is no insignificant pleasure.
Cheerfulness and good humor, moreover, during meals are not only pleasant in themselves, but conduce greatly to health.
It has been said that hunger is the best sauce, but most would prefer some good stories at a feast even to a good appetite; and who would not like to have it said of him, as of Biron by Rosaline—
"A merrier man
Within the limit of becoming mirth
I never spent an hour's talk withal."
In the three great "Banquets" of Plato, Xenophon, and Plutarch, the food is not even mentioned.
In the words of the old Lambeth adage—
"What is a merry man?
Let him do what he can
To entertain his guests
With wine and pleasant jests,
Yet if his wife do frown
All merryment goes down."