[122] Almahide hath the same contempt for these appetities:
"To eat and drink can no perfection be.—"Conquest of Granada."
The Earl of Essex is of a different opinion, and seems to place the chief happiness of a general therein:
"Were but commanders half so well rewarded,
Then they might eat."—Banks's "Earl of Essex."
But, if we may believe one who knows more than either, the devil himself, we shall find eating to be an affair of more moment than is generally imagined:
"Gods are immortal only by their food."—
"Lucifer, in the State of Innocence."
[123] "This expression is enough of itself," says Mr. D., "utterly to destroy the character of Huncamunca!" Yet we find a woman of no abandoned character in Dryden adventuring farther, and thus excusing herself:
"To speak our wishes first, forbid it pride,