Comments on Corpulency. 17 



ner in which the jolly gentlemen of the age proclaim eternal war 

 with Maigre and Lent, the march of fat-folks will, at any rate, 

 keep pace with the march of intellect. Nor, is it to be won- 

 dered at, when we consider the great improvement in the art of 

 cookery — which has arrived at such perfection, as to bring within 

 the compass of one stomach, what nature provided for two. 



'* Plures crapula quam gladius " — is an old adage ; which, 

 in a free translation, means — Cookery depopulates like a pesti- 

 lence ; — and we have had doctors disseminating this plague, 

 with as much moral culpability, as illegitimate practitioners 

 have the small-pox. This is no new doctrine ; it is as old as 

 the days of Seneca, who says, *' innumerabilis morbos mirabilis, 

 coquos numera" — we cannot wonder at the number of diseases, 

 when we recollect the number of cooks ! For this reason, a 

 celebrated modern physician, when visiting his opulent patients, 

 never failed to pay his respects to the cooks: — "My good 

 friends," he used to say, '* accept my best thanks for all the 

 kind services you render us physicians ; were it not for you and 

 your pleasing poisons, the Faculty would soon find themselves 

 inhabitants of the workhouse." 



But let us speak with reverence of an art that is as old as 

 King Cadmus, and let us recollect that Henry IV. of France was 

 often in the kitchen ; that a corps of missionary cooks have 

 been considered the most powerful emissaries to convert the 

 Brahmins, — and that when the devil himself sends us a plague 

 in the shape of a bad cook, infernal malice can go no further. 



Que je puisse toujours apres avoir din6, 

 B6nir le cuisinier que le ciel m'a donn6. 



Were we inclined to philosophise on this subject, we should 

 say — that the portly show — the beautiful rotundity of Burke — 

 and the serpentine line of Hogarth — which exist in the fat wor- 

 thies of this day, compared with those of former times, are in 

 proportion to the superiority of modern over ancient cookery. 



The hon vivant of our time turns shocked and disgusted from 

 the black broth, pulse, and meagre fare of the ancients ; and 

 his refined taste bestows due contempt on the patriot who could 

 dine on turnips ! Agesilaus, Lycurgus, and Cincinnatus, may 



JAN. — MARCH, 1828. 



