Insouciance

We cannot think, we cannot work if our stomach doesn't want it. It controls all our passions and experiences. After a pork belly with eggs, it says: work; after a steak and porter: sleep; and after a cup of tea (two spoons per cup, steep for no more than three minutes), it commands the brain: now get up and show what you are capable of. Be eloquent, profound, and gentle. Look with a clear eye at nature and at life. Spread the white wings of trembling thought and fly, like a godlike spirit, above the noisy light, soaring between long rows of blazing stars towards the gates of eternity. After hot donuts, it says: be dull and mindless, like an animal in a field, be a brainless creature with an indifferent gaze, in which no life, no imagination, no hope, no fear, no love shines. And after brandy, consumed in the right amount, it commands: now fool around, laugh and dance so that your neighbors laugh; babble nonsense, make meaningless sounds; show how helpless a miserable creature becomes, whose mind and will are drowned, like kittens, in a few gulps of alcohol. We are all miserable slaves to the stomach. Do not strive to be moral and just, friends! Carefully observe your stomach, feed it with understanding and care. Then satisfaction and virtue will reign in your heart without any effort on your part; you will become a good citizen, a loving husband, a tender father – a noble, pious person. (c)