THE ART OF COOKING GAME. 459 



of mankind are not so numerous as to render an attempt to increase 

 them superfluous. And even in regard to those who have it in 

 their power to gratify their appetites to the utmost extent of their 

 wishes, it is surely rendering them a very important service to 

 show them how they may increase their pleasures without destroy- 

 ing their health." Dr. Mayo, in his "Philosophy of Living," also 

 remarks that "man, unlike animals, is in best humor when he is 

 feeding, and more disposed then than at other times to cultivate 

 those amicable relations by which the bonds of society are 

 strengthened." 



Who among our readers will not cheerfully acknowledge the 

 force of such sentiments, emanating, as they do, from men of study, 

 reflection, and practical observation ? Who among them will not 

 concede, in the fulness of his heart, that "a good dinner is one of 

 the greatest enjoyments of human life"? Who ever knew of a 

 philosopher refusing to participate in the festivities of a banquet ? 

 And who ever encountered the still stranger sight of a disciple of 

 Hippocrates living up to the dietetic precepts laid down for the 

 guidance of his refractory patients ? 



Look around you on every side, ye carping cynics and snarling 

 bigots, and see how many men of the greatest talents and rarest 

 virtues, whether of the present day or of ages past, have sought 

 pleasure in the innocent enjoyments of the table, and thus convince 

 yourselves that these indulgences are not "incompatible with in- 

 tellectual pursuits or mental superiority." Doctor Johnson, with 

 all his wonderful attainments, did not consider a good dinner or a 

 recherche supper beneath his attention ; for we are informed by 

 Boswell, his biographer, that " he never knew a man who relished 

 good eating more than he did ; and when at table he was wholly 

 absorbed in the business of the moment." The doctor himself 

 says, in his usual quaint and philosophic style, '■'■Some people have 

 a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what 

 they eat : for my part, I mind my belly very studiously and very 

 carefully ; and I look upon it that he v.'ho does not mind his belly 

 will hardly mind any thing else." 



