552 THE MOUNTAIN. 



partment of medicine which prevents disease ; but all bodies 

 of all men are under the same power, whose resources are 

 endless. 



WHAT WE EAT. 



" Make the sin of intemperance, popularly so called, great 

 as you please, as great even as God makes it, and it falls 

 short, very far short, of the sin of intemperance, as con- 

 nected with the use of food."* Gastronomy has come to 

 be a science, f an art rather, higher than a science, and there 

 have been inspired cooks, men of genius who were cooks. J 

 The gastronomic " fine art" has become a part of the reli- 

 gion of the " dominant race," and will soon demand sepa- 

 rate temples of worship. Great is the " belly," much greater 

 than the "members." 



The stomach of man is the base of the pyramid man, the 

 living foundation of his high and glorified form. Heavy and 

 cumbrous, but broad and firm, it rests upon the bosom of 

 the earth, and in the repose of Gizeh, Sachara, or Cholula, 

 it says, I am planted forever. It is the bond of universal 

 alliance with all nature and created things, from the lowest 

 to the highest. The animal and vegetable kingdoms are its 



* A 1. 



} Elaborate works have been written on gastronomy. A General 

 History of Cooking was published at Leipsic in 1835, "in ten portly 

 volumes," 8vo., and other works on that beautiful and attractive 

 science had appeared before, and have since, so that they now con- 

 stitute a library of gastronomy. 



J Vatel, the maitre d'hotel of Conde, was a man of genius. He 

 committed suicide because he had made a blunder in the preparation 

 of a breakfast. "Who was ever more worthy of the respect and 

 gratitude of true gourmands, than the man of genius who would not 

 survive the dishonor of the table of the great Conde* ? who immolated 

 himself with his own hands, because the sea-fish had not arrived 

 some hours before it was served ? So noble a death insures you, 

 venerable shade, the most glorious immortality ! You have proved 

 that the fanaticism of honor can exist in the kitchen as well as the 

 camp, and that the spit and the saucepan have also their Catos and 

 their Deciuses." Almanack des Gourmands. 



