326 COOKERY FOR SPORTSMEN. 



Coarse minds, to whom the allurements of gastro- 

 nomy are incomprehensible, consider cooking vul- 

 gar ; while a few pitiable individuals are created 

 without the sense to distinguish the tasty from the 

 tasteless, as there are persons without an eye for 

 the beauties of nature or an ear for the harmony of 

 sounds. These unfortunates deserve our sympathy ; 

 but for the individual who affects to despise the 

 pleasures of the table, as loftily placing himself above 

 what he terms grovelling appetites, nothing is ap- 

 propriate but contempt. Who would believe or 

 respect the man who claimed that his inability to 

 distinguish green from red was a credit to him? 

 Or could tolerate one who was filled with ostenta- 

 tious pride because, by a wretched malformation, he 

 could not tell Old Hundred from Casta Diva ? 



The sense of taste is as noble, and as capable of 

 education and improvement, as the art of the painter 

 or the musician. The stomach being the governor, 

 master, and director of the body, when it is pleased 

 the intellect works with force, the eye and ear are 

 in full play, and the nerves and muscles tingle with 

 animation; when it is sick or exhausted the eye 

 grows dull, the intellect feeble, the ear inaccurate, 

 and the whole body drooping and spiritless. It has 

 its ramifications in every part of the system, and 

 controls as inferiors the other organs. An ill-cooked 

 dinner has lost many a battle, ruined many an indi- 

 vidual, and disgraced many a genius ; it is said that 

 an indigestible ragout cost Napoleon his crown. 



Life is dear to all, and yet persons are continually 



