He is one who has attained, or to whom has been vouchsafed,
a poignant sense of all that does the least violence to the sense
of taste and smell; but, moreover, who is capable of discovering
edification in things as diverse as the loud jack fruit and the subtle
mangosteen--who can appreciate each according to its special
characteristics, just as a lover of music finds gratification of a
varied nature in the grand harmonies of a Gregorian Chant and in the
tender cadences of a song of Sullivan's. Are those who have sensitive
and correct palates for fruit not to be credited with art and
exactitude, as well as critics of music and painting and statuary, and
connoisseurs of wine?
As with many other fruits, so with the papaw. Only those who grow it
themselves, who learn of the relative merits of the produce of different
trees, and who can time their acceptance of it from the tree, so that it
shall possess all its fleeting elements in the happy blending of full
maturity, can know how good and great papaw really is. The fruit of
some particular tree is of course not to be tolerated save as a
vegetable, and then what a desirable vegetable it is? It has a precise
and particular flavour, and texture most agreeable.
Pages:
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310