Lectures · Lecture 18b

18b.1

Gluttony and gourmandizing, he said, are utterly shameful, and no one will dispute it; yet I have observed very few who take any care to avoid these things, while I see the majority craving such foods even when they are absent, unable to keep away from them when they are present, and, when they do partake of them, partaking without restraint, to the point of using them even to the harm of the body. And yet what could gluttony be but a lack of self-control regarding food, on account of which people prefer the pleasant in eating to the beneficial? And gourmandizing is nothing other than immoderation in the enjoyment of delicacies. Now, though immoderation is everywhere an evil, it is here above all that it reveals its own nature, producing gourmandizers who, in their voracity, resemble pigs or dogs rather than human beings, and who cannot conduct themselves decently—not with their hands, not with their eyes, not in their swallowing—so completely does the desire for the pleasure found in delicacies drive them out of their senses. That to be so disposed toward food is utterly shameful is plain, seeing that in it we come to resemble senseless animals rather than intelligent human beings. And since this is utterly shameful, the opposite would be most noble—to eat in an orderly and seemly manner, and to display self-control here first of all; this is not easy, but requires much attention and training. Why is this so? Because, although there are many pleasures that persuade a person to do wrong and force him to give in to them contrary to his advantage, the pleasure connected with food is likely to be the most difficult of all to combat. For with the other pleasures we have contact more rarely, and from some of them we are able to abstain for whole months and years, but this one it is absolutely necessary to experience every single day, and for the most part twice each day; for a person cannot live otherwise. And so, the more often we experience the pleasure in eating, the more numerous are the dangers here. Indeed, at each taking of food there is not one danger of going wrong, but several.

18b.2

For the one who eats more than he ought is doing wrong, and the one who hurries in his eating no less so, and the one who defiles himself with delicacies more than is fitting, and the one who prefers the more pleasant foods to the more healthful, and the one who does not distribute equal portions to those eating with him. And there is yet another error concerning food, when we take it at the wrong time, and, though we ought to be doing something else, we set that aside and eat. Since, then, there are so many errors—and still others—concerning food, the person who intends to be self-controlled must keep clear of them all and be liable to none of them. And one would keep clear and be free of error by training and accustoming oneself to choose food not in order to take pleasure but in order to be nourished, not in order to gratify the palate in swallowing but in order to strengthen the body. For swallowing came into being to be a passage for nourishment, not an instrument of pleasure, and the stomach exists for the same purpose for which the root also came into being in every plant. For just as there the root nourishes the plant by taking its nourishment from what is outside, so the stomach nourishes the living being from the foods and drinks brought into it. And just as it happens that these are nourished for the sake of continued existence and not for pleasure, so likewise for us food is both life and medicine. Therefore it is fitting for us to eat in order to live, not in order to take pleasure, if indeed we are to follow that excellent saying of Socrates, who said that most people live in order to eat, but he himself ate in order to live. For surely no one who wishes to be a decent human being will think it right to be like the many and to live for the sake of eating, as they do, hunting after the pleasure from food by every means. And that God, who made the human being for the sake of preservation, not for the sake of pleasure, provided foods and drinks for people—this one may learn best from the following. For indeed, when food most of all performs its own work, it in no way gives the person pleasure, that is, during digestion and assimilation; rather, we are then nourished and strengthened by it, but at that time we feel no pleasure at all, even though this period of time is longer than the one in which we eat.

18b.3

But surely, if God had contrived food for us for the sake of pleasure, we ought to feel pleasure from it during this longer period, and not only in that briefest time in which we swallow. Yet nevertheless, for the sake of that briefest time in which we feel pleasure, an endless preparation of delicacies goes on, the sea is sailed to its farthest limits, cooks are more eagerly sought after than farmers, and some set out dinners that cost the price of estates—and this though the body is in no way benefited by the extravagance of the foods. For quite the contrary, those who use the cheapest foods are the strongest. At any rate, you would see that, for the most part, servants are stronger than their masters, country folk than city dwellers, and the poor than the rich, and that they are more capable of hard work, less exhausted by their labors, more rarely ill, and more easily able to endure cold, heat, sleeplessness, and every such thing. But even if extravagant and cheap food were equally to strengthen the body, still one should choose the cheap, because it is more conducive to self-control and more befitting a good man; likewise, that which is easily obtained is more fitting for decent people than what is hard to obtain, that which is free of trouble than what involves trouble, and that which is ready at hand than what is not ready for nourishment. And, to state in summary the whole matter concerning food, I say that one must make its aim health and strength, since one should eat only for the sake of these, which require no extravagance at all; and that in eating one must attend to good order and the fitting measure, and above all to being clean and unhurried.