488 PROSE HAXIEXJTICS. 



too, of whatever sect, I like to know beforehand ; since, 

 however each school may differ in its airy speculations, all 

 are equal locusts at table, and expect the largest rations, 

 and the most solid provision the market affords. Even 

 your collectors of taxes, though they look so melancholy 

 and resigned to a painful profession, do not like us to 

 neglect them, but stipulate to have their insides well lined 

 with a dainty stewed sparus, a glaucus' head au bleu, or 

 an eel roasted in his skin, and reeking in copaic fatness.' 

 ' Beyond these intricacies of the palate, is there anything 

 else which a cook must know T ' Plenty ! plenty ! he must 

 be also a chemist and a doctor, Kai Trp iwrpucffi ri fiereyeiv 

 jjLoi SoKei, else he will continually make mistakes in his 

 sauces, and, by mixing incompatible ingredients,* some- 

 times purge or vomit a whole table ; at others wiU arouse, 

 to the discomfort of the festive board, those ill-bred 

 soundings of complaining flatulency which make guests 

 ashamed of themselves or of each other ; or, worse still, 

 in his ignorance, 



ijd* aTreipia 

 rav vvv ^ayeipmv Karavoei irpbs rav BeSiv 

 TToia 'crriv, — 



will serve a supper with death in the pot, — <pev, (j>ev, and 

 fie ! fie ! — for cookery, like every other branch of human 

 knowledge, has many professors, but few real proficients. 

 Yes, noble sir, there are a thousand oT/roTrotoc to dish and 

 do for you, to one who is a real Mageiros, a properly in- 

 structed cook; the main and essential difference between 

 the two being, that one has, whilst the other wants, those 

 useful qualifications of sagacity, forethought, and judg- 

 ment, so indispensable to eminence and success here, as 

 in every other sphere of life. Though not a poet by pro- 

 fession, I sometimes jot down with charcoal in the even- 



* Ti yap &v ei yhoir tn 

 TTJs J8m)t?)Tos irpos irepav fiefiiyfi,€vr]s, 

 Kol a-VfiTrXcKOiievris oix' <rviJ.<j>avovs d(j)ds. 



