Yes, but good gracious! surely (broke in Simonides), during the actual
time,[26] before the appetite is cloyed, the gastronomic pleasure
derived from the costlier bill of fare far exceeds that of the cheaper
dinner-table.

[26] Lit. "so long as the soul (i.e. the appetite) accepts with
pleasure the viands"; i.e. there's an interval, at any rate,
during which "such as my soul delights in" can still apply and for
so long.

But, as a matter of plain logic (Hiero retorted), should you not say,
the greater the pleasure a man feels in any business, the more
enthusiastic his devotion to it?

That is quite true (he answered).

Hiero. Then have you ever noticed that crowned heads display more
pleasure in attacking the bill of fare provided them, than private
persons theirs?

No, rather the reverse (the poet answered); if anything, they show a
less degree of gusto,[27] unless they are vastly libelled.

[27] "No, not more pleasure, but exceptional fastidiousness, if what
people say is true." {agleukesteron}, said ap. Suid. to be a
Sicilian word = "more sourly."

Well (Hiero continued), and all these wonderfully-made dishes which
are set before the tyrant, or nine-tenths of them, perhaps you have
observed, are combinations of things acid to the taste, or pungent, or