626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be only occasionally introduced. The toast of " national institu- 

 tions" would mostly insure to the chairman and managers of the din- 

 ner an opportunity of obtaining two good speakers from different 

 interests in reply say, one for Justice and the other for Religion ; 

 one for Parliament or the Services, and the other for Science or Liter- 

 ature, and so forth. Thus all the varied elements of our national life 

 would receive in their turn a due share of attention from the great 

 mass of public diners, and better speeches would probably be secured 

 than by the present mode. 



I confess this is rather an episode ; but the subject of " toasts " is 

 so interwoven with the management of the public dinner that I have ' 

 ventured to introduce it. I even dare to think that the proposition 

 may be not unlikely to receive the support of " the chair," the duties 

 of which, with a long array of toasts, are sometimes excessively oner- 

 ous ; only more so, be it recollected, in degree than those, of a hum- 

 bler kind, which are entailed on many of the guests who are com- 

 pelled to assist. 



In concluding this imperfect sketch of the very large subject indi- 

 cated by the title of my paper, I desire to express my strong sense of 

 its manifold shortcomings, especially by way of omission. Desiring 

 to call attention, in the shortest possible compass, to a great number 

 of what appear to me to be important considerations in connection 

 with the arts of selecting, preparing, and serving food, I have doubt- 

 less often failed to be explicit in the effort to be brief. It would 

 have been an easier task to illustrate these considerations at greater 

 length, and to have exceeded the limits of a couple of articles ; and I 

 might thus perhaps also have avoided, in dealing with some topics, a 

 tone in statement more positive than circumstances may have war- 

 ranted. Gastronomic tastes necessarily differ, as races, habits, diges- 

 tive force, and supplies of food also differ ; and it becomes no man to 

 be too dogmatic in treating of these matters. De gustibus non est dis- 

 putandum is in no instance more true than in relation to the tastes of 

 the palate. Still, if any rational canons are to be laid down in con- 

 nection with food and feeding, it is absolutely necessary that some- 

 thing more than the chemical and physiological bearings of the sub- 

 ject should be taken into consideration. With these it is unquestion- 

 ably essential for any one who treats of my subject to be familiar ; 

 but no less necessary is it to possess some natural taste and experience 

 in the cultivation of the gustatory sense ; just as a cultivation of the 

 perception of color and a sensibility to the charm of harmoniously 

 combined tints are necessary to an intelligent enjoyment of the vis- 

 ual sense and to the understanding of its powers. Hence the treat- 

 ment of the whole subject must inevitably be pervaded to some 

 extent by the personal idiosyncrasy and predilections of the individ- 

 ual. It is this fact, no doubt, which, operating in relation to the nu- 

 merous writers on cookery, has tended to produce some of the com- 



