369. Culture; Custom; Eating "It is not very easy to fix the principles upon which mankind have agreed to eat some animals, and reject others; and as the principle is not evident, it is not uniform. That which is selected as delicate in one country, is by its neighbours abhorred as loathsome." Johnson: Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland Link 1,344. Custom; Disgust; Vulgarity "We are all offended by low terms, but are not disgusted alike by the same compositions, because we do not agree to censure the same terms as low. No word is naturally or intrinsically meaner than another; our opinion therefore of words, as of other things arbitrarily and capriciously established, depends wholly upon accident and custom. The cottager thinks those apartments splendid and spacious which an inhabitant of palaces will despise for their inelegance; and to him who has passed most of his hours with the delicate and polite, many expressions will seem sordid which another, equally acute, may hear without offence; but a mean term never fails to displease him to whom it appears mean, as poverty is certainly and invariably despised, though he who is poor in the eyes of some, may by others be envied for his wealth." Johnson: Rambler #168 (October 26, 1751) Link 1,603. Custom; Desires; Time "As we lose part of our time because it steals away silent and invisible, and many an hour is passed before we recollect that it is passing; so unnatural desires insinuate themselves unobserved into the mind, and we do not perceive that they are gaining upon us, till the pain which they give us awakens us to notice. No man is sufficiently vigilant to take account of every minute of his life, or to watch every motion of his heart. Much of our time likewise is sacrificed to custom; we trifle, because we see others trifle; in the same manner, we catch from example the contagion of desire; we see all about us busied in pursuit of imaginary good, and begin to bustle in the same chase, lest greater activity should triumph over us." Johnson: Adventurer #119 (December 25, 1753) Link 1,817. Culture; Custom "National manners are formed by chance." Johnson: Idler #87 (December 15, 1759) Link 1,832. Change; Custom "Customs are not to be changed but for better. Let those who desire to reform us, shew the benefits of the change proposed." Johnson: Idler #90 (January 5, 1760) Link