ON THE COOKING OF FISH. 229 



two states ; and taking it as a test, the great bulk 

 of our lower classes have little to brag of. The 

 veriest savage that roams the North or South 

 American wildernesses, the most uncivilized and 

 unknown among the amphibious islanders of the 

 Pacific, know better what they put into their 

 stomachs and how to prepare it than our poorer 

 countrymen do. It is a question if there is any 

 human being on the face of the globe, barely 

 excepting the Bosjesman of Australia or the Earth'- 

 man of the Andes, who is so badly off in cookery 

 knowledge as the English labourer. It may be that 

 excess of civilization has completed our cycle in this 

 respect, and brought us again to the bottom round 

 of the ladder. I think that there is no greater evi- 

 dence of the decline of character in England than 

 the state of cookery knowledge amongst the lower 

 classes. A knowledge of economical cookery, and the 

 practice of it constantly by the wives, sisters, and 

 mothers of labouring men, argues domestic duties 

 properly fulfilled — ^industry, intelligence, and home 

 ties and relationships drawn closer and purified by 

 the fulfilment of those duties. It makes up, in fact, 

 the sum of all that is worth living for in life. It may 

 be much for the rich, but how incalculably more for 

 the poor ! 



