The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Bravo for the seer of Poughkeepsie! In the above extracts, quoted from
his "Thinker," he has vindicated the much maligned Epicurus better than
his disciples Lucretius and Gassendi have done, and by some mysterious
process (he calls it psychometry) he seems to know more of the old
Athenian, and to have a more intimate knowledge of his doctrines, than
can be found in Brucker or Ritter.
When it is considered how our mental states may be modified by what we
eat and drink, the importance of good _ingesta_, both fluid and solid,
becomes apparent. Among the good things which attached Charles Lamb to
this present life was his love of the delicious juices of meats and
fishes.
But these things are preliminary, although not impertinent to the main
subject, which is Quincy Market. After having perambulated the principal
markets of the other leading American cities, I must pronounce it
_facile princeps_ among New-World markets. A walk through it is equal to
a dose of dandelion syrup in the way of exciting an appetite for one's
dinner. Such a walk is tonic and medicinal, and should be prescribed to
dyspeptic patients. To the hungry, penniless man such a walk is like the
torture administered to the old Phrygian who blabbed to mortals the
secrets of the celestial banquets. Autumn is the season in which to
indulge in a promenade through Quincy Market, after the leaf has been
nipped by the frost and crimson-tinted, when the morning air is cool and
bracing. Then the stalls and precincts of the chief Boston market are a
goodly spectacle. Athenaeus himself, the classic historian of classic
gluttons and classic bills of fare, could not but feel a glow at the
sight of the good things here displayed, if he were alive. Quincy Market
culminates at Thanksgiving time. It then attains to the zenith of good
fare.
Cleanliness and spruceness are the rule among the Quincy Market men and
stall-keepers. The matutinal display outside of apples, pears, onions,
turnips, beets, carrots, egg-plants, cranberries, squashes, etc., is
magnificent in the variety and richness of its hues. What a multitude of
orchards, meadows, gardens, and fields have been laid under contribution
to furnish this vegetable abundance! And here are their choicest
products. The foodful Earth and the arch-chemic Sun, the great
agriculturist and life-fountain, have done their best in concocting
these Quincy Market culinary vegetables. They wear a healthful,
resplendent look. Inside, what a goodly vista stretches away of fish,
flesh, and fowl! From these white stalls the Tempter could have
furnished forth the banquet the Miltonic description of which has been
quoted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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