Let us first consider the taste.

Since it is most easy to inquire into the property of liquids, and since all things seem to want a fluid vehicle to make them tasted at all, I intend rather to consider the liquid than the solid parts of our food.

The vehicles of all tastes are _water_ and _oil_.

And what determines the taste is some salt, which affects variously according to its nature, or its manner of being combined with other things.

Water and oil, simply considered, are capable of giving some pleasure to the taste.