166 



♦ KNO\A/LEDGE • 



[Sept. 14, 1883. 



I should add that Sir Henry Thompson directs, as a 

 matter of course, that the roasted fish should be served in the 

 dish wherein it was cooked. He suggests that " portions of 

 fish, such as fillets, may be treated as well as entire fish ; gar- 

 nishes of all kinds, as shell-fish, &c., may be added, flavour- 

 ing also with fine herbs and condiments according to taste." 

 " Fillets of plaice or skate with a slice or two of bacon; the 

 dish to be filled or garnished with some previously-boiled 

 haricots," is wisely recommended as a savoury meal for a 

 poor man, and one that is highly nutritious. A chemical 

 analysis of sixpennyworth of such a combination would 

 prove its nutritive value to be equal to fully eighteen- 

 pennyworth of beefsteak. 



Some people may be inclined to smile at what I am 

 about to say, viz , that such savoury dishes, serving to 

 vary the monotony of the poor hard-working man's ordi- 

 nary fare, aftbrd considerable moral, as well as physical, 

 advantage. 



An instructive experience of my own will illustrate this. 

 When wandering alone through Norway in 18.56 I lost 

 the track in crossing the Kyolen fjeld, struggled on for 

 twenty-three hours without food or rest, and arrived in 

 sorry plight at Lorn, a very wild region. After a few 

 hours' rest I pushed on to a still wilder region and still 

 rougher quarters, and continued thus to the great Jostedal 

 table-land, an unbroken glacier of -500 square miles ; then 

 descended the .Jostedal itself to its opening on the Sogne 

 fjord — five days of extreme hardship with no other food 

 than flatbrod (very coarse oatcake), and bilberries gathered 

 on the way, varied on one occasion with the luxury of two 

 raw turnips. Then I reached a comparatively luxurious 

 station (Rounei), where ham and eggs and claret were 

 obtainable. The first glass of claret produced an effect 

 that alarmed me — a craving for more and for stronger 

 drink, that was almost irresistible. I finished a bottle of 

 St. Julien, and nothing but a violent elibrt of will pre- 

 vented me from then ordering brandy. 



I attribute this to the exhaustion consequent upon the 

 excessive work and insuflicient unsavoury food of the pre- 

 vious five days ; have made many subsequent observa- 

 tions on the victims of alcohol, and have no doubt that 

 overwork and scanty, tasteless food is tl;e primary source 

 of the craving for strong drink that so largely prevails 

 with such deplorable results among the class that is the 

 most exposed to such privation. I do not say that this is 

 the only source of such depraved appetite. It may also be 

 engendered by the opposite extreme of excessive luxurious 

 pandering to general sensuality. 



The practical inference suggested by this experience and 

 these observations is, that speech-making, pledge-signing, 

 and blue-ribbon missions can only effect temporary results 

 unless supplemented by satisfying the natural appetite of 

 hungry people by supplies of food that is not only nutri- 

 tious, but savoury and varied. Such food need be no more 

 expensive than that which is commonly eaten by the 

 poorest of Englishmen, but it must be far better cooked. 



Comparing the domestic economy of the poorer classes 

 of our countrymen with that of the corresponding classes 

 in France and Italy (with both of which I am well ac- 

 quainted), I find that the raw material of the dietary of 

 the French and Italians is inferior to that of the English, 

 but a far better result is obtained by better cookery. 

 The Italian peasantry are better fed than the French. In 

 the poor osterias above referred to, not only the Friday salt 

 fish, but all the other viands were incomparably better 

 cooked than in corresponding places in England, and the 

 variety was greater than is common in many middle-class 

 houses. The ordinarysupper of the " roughs " above-named 

 was of three courses, first a " miiiestra," i.e., a soup of 



some kind, continually varied, or a savoury dish of mac- 

 caroni ; then a ragout or savoury stew of vegetables and 

 meat, followed Ijy an excellent salad ; the beverage a flask 

 of thin but genuine wine. When I come to the subject of 

 cheese, I will describe their mode of cooking and using it. 



My first walk through Italy extended from the Alps to 

 Naples, and from Mei-sina to Syracuse. 1 thus spent 

 nearly a year in Italy during a season of great abundance, 

 and never saw a drunken Italian. A few years after this 

 I walked through a part of Lombardy, and found the 

 little osterias as bad as English beershops or low public- 

 houses. It was a period of scarcity and trouble, " the 

 three plagues," as they called them — the potato disease, 

 the silkworm fungus, and the grape disease — had brought 

 about general privation. There was no wine at all ; 

 potato spirit and coarse beer had taken its place. ]\Iono- 

 tonous " polenta," a sort of paste or porridge made from 

 Indian corn meal, to which they give the contemptuous 

 name of " miserabile," was then the general food, and 

 much drunkenness was the natural consequence. 



THE MORALITY OF HAPPINESS. 



By Thomas Foster. 



{Continued from page 138). 



THE EVOLUTION OF CONDUCT. 



Chaptek III. 



BUT within a race and in the relations of the race to 

 other races, there are causes which influence the evo- 

 lution of conduct. Members of a race fight out the contest for 

 existence not alone but more or less in the presence of their 

 fellows and in the presence of members of other races. 

 Each individual in providing for liis own wants or for his 

 own defence aflects more or less others, either of his own 

 race or of other races, in their efforts to defend or sustain 

 their lives. Very often, as Mr. Herbert Spencer quaintly 

 puts it, " a successful adjustment by one creature involves 

 an unsuccessful adjustment made by ^another creature, 

 either of the same kind or of a different kind." The lion 

 and the lamb, for instance, already anticipate the millen- 

 nium ; but the lion adjusts matters so much more success- 

 fully than the lamb, as to take the outside place ; the lamb 

 lies down with the lion, but — inside. Among all races, 

 herbivorous as well as carnivorous, similar relations exist. 

 The more vigorous get the better food, food which the 

 weaker contend for in vain or have to resign, when obtained, 

 to superior strength. Within one and the same race there 

 is still the same law. The stronger monopolise, if they can, 

 the feeding grounds of the race. The weaker, whether 

 originally so, or become so through age or disease, succumb 

 in greater numbers than the stronger in the struggle for 

 existence. Only, while the death of those weak through 

 age does not affect the evolution of the race, the greater 

 mortality among those originally weaker than the rest 

 modifies the race qualities. 



In these contests conduct plays an important part. 

 Unnecessary contests involve unnecessary risks. That 

 conduct must prevail best in the long run, and there- 

 fore that conduct must eventually be evolved and 

 developed, by which adjustments for the advantage of 

 one creature do not needlessly interfere with adjustments 

 for the advantage of other creatures. If we imagine 

 a carnivorous animal carefully limiting his search for 

 animal food to his requirements, not killing where there 

 was no occasion, and keeping carefully all food he had once 

 obtained, we see that his chances in the life struggle would 



