OPSOPHAaY. 481 



ably ; and as by good cookery life is quite as much pro- 

 longed as it is embellished, we should be prepared to ex- 

 pect that its professors, on such solid»grounds to man's 

 esteem, should have become ubiquitous favourites ; and 

 such is indeed the fact : no class of persons have ever 

 enjoyed so large or so lasting a reputation as cooks ; 

 each age has handed them down to the next as a race to 

 * whose diversified services'* states and individuals were 

 alike beholden. Whilst other callings have had their 

 day, and only prospered in certain soils, this has flou- 

 rished everywhere, and under every dynasty; anciently 

 under Persian satraps, Greek archons, Sicilian despots, 

 tetrarchs, the triumvirs, and the Caesars ; and more re- 

 cently under the sway of sultans, caliphs, czars ; and in 

 imperial, pontifical, presidential, princely, and archducal 

 kitchens. No convulsion of a state ever disturbed its 

 cooks; the most violent and sudden change of the supreme 

 power has never in any degree abridged theirs. Perse- 

 cution, wherever else she sought her victims, took none 

 from their ranks ; ' whatever broils disturbed the street,' 

 they broiled ' in peace at home ;' and often, no doubt, has 

 the bright kitchen battery proved a safer sanctimi during 

 a reign of terror than either convent or church ; amidst 

 scenes of lawless violence, and the carnage of war, the 

 traiteur of every age has calmly cooked for the comba- 

 tants ; and never losing, or in danger of losing, his head, 

 has prosecuted his important avocation under circum- 

 stances the most alarming ; grilling ' poulets h. la Ma- 

 rengo' amid the smoke and din of a camp ; elaborately 

 preparing in some mountain cave the supper of a robber 

 chief and his clan, or gaily carolling Caradori's sprightly 

 air of ' 9a m'est egal' to the eels he was skinning for a 

 crew of piratical cut-throats. The common ally of hu-, 

 manity, he has become everybody's friend ; with him^ no 



* S/cEvacria iroiK.lKrf. — Menan,d. 



