was to go to bed at six in the evening, sleep till twelve, and, after,
to rise and write for nearly twelve hours at a stretch, imbibing coffee
as a stimulant through these spells of composition."

In his _Treatise on Modern Stimulants_, Balzac thus describes his
reaction to his most beloved stimulant:

This coffee falls into your stomach, and straightway there is a
general commotion. Ideas begin to move like the battalions of the
Grand Army on the battlefield, and the battle takes place. Things
remembered arrive at full gallop, ensign to the wind. The light
cavalry of comparisons deliver a magnificent deploying charge, the
artillery of logic hurry up with their train and ammunition, the
shafts of wit start up like sharpshooters. Similes arise, the paper
is covered with ink; for the struggle commences and is concluded
with torrents of black water, just as a battle with powder.

When Balzac tells how Doctor Minoret, Ursule Minoret's guardian, used to
regale his friends with a cup of "Moka," mixed with Bourbon and
Martinique, which the Doctor insisted on personally preparing in a
silver coffee pot, it is his own custom that he is detailing. His
Bourbon he bought only in the rue Mont Blanc (now the chausse d'Antin);
the Martinique, in the rue des Vielles Audriettes; the Mocha, at a
grocer's in the rue de l'Universite. It was half a day's journey to
fetch them.

There have been notable contributions to the general literature of
coffee by French, Italian, English, and American writers. Space does not
permit of more than passing mention of some of them.

The reactions of the early French and English writers have been touched
upon in the chapters on the coffee houses of old London and the early
Parisian coffee houses, and in the history chapters dealing with the
evolution of coffee drinking and coffee manners and customs.

After Dufour, Galland, and La Roque in France, there were Count Rumford,
John Timbs, Douglas Ellis, and Robinson in England; Jardin and Franklin
in France; Belli in Italy; Hewitt, Thurber, and Walsh in America.

Mention has been made of coffee references in the works of Aubrey,
Burton, Addison, Steele, Bacon, and D'Israeli.

Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) the great French epicure, knew coffee as few
men before him or since. In his historical elegy, contained in
_Gastronomy as a Fine Art, or the Science of Good Living_, he exclaims:

You crossed and mitre