645. Spirits also alter the taste
Sometimes, in fact quite often, it has happened that something which tasted good seemed to be offensive, or to have a different taste. Twice, if I am not mistaken, I even experienced sugar as almost salty, feeling a kind of salty taste from the sugar on my tongue. I could actually taste that the moisture on my palate had a saltiness in it, which had been pressed out of my bodily fluids by spirits.
This happened when the Jovian spirits thought that sugar was salt. Indeed, they thought that anything divided up into grains, as sugar, was therefore granulated salt; and because they thought it to be salt, [it tasted salty to me]. So in regard to other things, a person's taste is thus changed in accordance with the fantasies of spirits. This they sometimes do to deceive; for they can bring on this kind of thing through deceptive fantasies.
645. THAT SPIRITS ALSO INVERT THE TASTE
It has sometimes happened, indeed rather frequently, that what has tasted good to me has come to taste as something foul, or to have a different taste. On two occasions, if I am not mistaken, sugar tasted almost like salt, so that from the sugar I felt as it were something salty upon the tongue, and even perceived that the liquid I drank had something salty in it, which is thus pressed out by spirits from the juices of the body. This happened when the Jovian spirits supposed that sugar was salt, and indeed that the salt was such that it was divided into grams as sugar is, therefore granulated salt, because they supposed it to be salt. So also in other cases. Thus man's taste is changed according to the phantasies of the spirits, which sometimes is brought about from deceit, for such a thing can be induced by them through deceitful phantasies.
645. Quod spiritus etiam gustum invertant
Quandoque, imo saepiuscule contigit, quod id quod bene saperet, mihi obveniret tanquam tetrum, aut alio gustu, bis etiam, ni fallor, quod saccharum paene ut salinum, sic ut e saccharo sentirem quasi salinum super lingua, et quidem percepi 1
, quod liquor palati in se salinum haberet quod a spiritibus sic est a succis corporis expressum; quod accidit, quum spiritus Joviales putarent saccharum esse sal, et quidem tale in frustis sicut saccharum in frusta divisum ideo granulatum salinum, quia ii putabant sal esse, ita quoque in aliis, mutatur sic gustus hominis secundum phantasias spirituum, quod quandoque ex dolo fit, nam simile induci potest ab iis per phantasias dolosas.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has prepi