temperate, yielding soft and wholesome
Nourishment, incapable of doing any Harm. And if this intrinsick
Coldness is no more to be feared, it must be own'd, that it will be
henceforward ridiculous, if not pernicious, to join it with hot acrid
Spices, more likely to alter and destroy its good and real Qualities,
than to correct the bad ones which it has not: I nevertheless do not
doubt but the Pleasantness of the Smell, and the favourite Taste of
several agreeable Spices, being pretty much liked in this Mixture, will
have their Partizans; who, more delighted with a present Gratification,
than afraid of the insensible Prejudice that these Ingredients bring to
their Health, will not resolve to leave them off. Tho these will be no
longer the Correctors of Chocolate, yet they will serve to season it,
with which they will please their Taste, without troubling themselves
with the Consequences. But those Persons who will give themselves the
trouble of thinking, and are more tractable and less sensual, will
wisely abstain from such Extreams, and their Moderation will not be
unattended with Benefit. Health is so valuable a Blessing, that the Care
to gain and preserve it, ought to supersede any other Consideration.

As to the pretended Obstructions which Chocolate is said to occasion
from its astrictive Quality, they are so far from being afraid of it in
_America_, that they have found by Experience a Vertue directly contrary
to it; for several young Women, subject to the Whites, have been cured
of this Distemper, by eating a Dozen _Cocao_ Kernels for Breakfast every
Morning. It is well enough known that Obstructions are the Cause of this
Disease, which instead of being encreas'd by Chocolate, were entirely
taken away.

Then as to those strange Disorders which are said to arise from its
immoderate Use, we shall bring in the Sequel so many Facts directly
contrary to these Chimerical Fears, that all Persons of good Sense will
be disabused, and convinced of the salutary and wonderful Properties of
this Fruit; which shall be the Subject of the following Chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Ludov. Ramira_, Relat. ad Hurtad. ad Append. cap.

[2] _Paulus Zachias_, de Malo Hypocondriaco, Lib. 2. Cap. 15.

CHAP. II.

Of the real Properties of Chocolate.

Without talking in the Dialect of the _Peripateticks_, about the
Qualities of Heat and Coldness, now-a-days so much decry'd, it will not
be difficult to prove that Chocolate is a S