In all these things — in the choice of nutrition, of climate and locality, of recreation — an instinct of self-preservation is in command, expressing itself most unambiguously as an instinct of self-defense. Not to see many things, not to hear them, not to let them approach one — first act of prudence, first proof for one’s being not an accident but a necessity. The customary word for this self-defense instinct is taste.

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