500 PEOSE HALIETJTICS. 



try were unbounded : tracing a direct descent from Cad- 

 mus, who it seems was a ' chef in his day, they pretended 

 the world had been regenerated by their means, that the 

 moral code had ever marched pari passu with the culi- 

 nary, and where there was no cooking, society, civiliza- 

 tion, or virtue could not possibly subsist. Man, accord- 

 ing to one of these too partial expositors of his art, was 

 at first a savage and a cannibal, whose spit, fleshed, not 

 with joints of mutton, but of man, never gyrated with 

 sucking pig, but very often with sucking babes. From 

 this vrretched state, successive trials of various vicari- 

 ous four-footed roasts gradually emancipated him, and 

 after blessing the immortals iu sacrifice for this discovery, 

 that his enjoyment might be complete, he next turned 

 his attention to sheep and bullocks, and passed into the 

 pastoral state. As a shepherd, he remained some time — 

 more harmless and inoffensive certainly, but not much 

 more civilized than before, tiU the gods at last favoured 

 him mth the discovery of the kitchen uses of salt; from 

 that period cookery might properly be said to commence, 

 whilst social progress soon evinced itself in various de- 

 fensive and offensive combinations : houses now were 

 built in clusters, with walls and ramparts to surround 

 and secure them ; hamlets increased to towns, towns 

 swelled into cities, cities grew into states; each state 

 made its own laws, and zealously defended them ; pa- 



feuiUe qui contenoit la satire imprimee, afin de la r^psmdre 

 dans le public, associant ainsi ses talens a ceux de Tabte Co- 

 tin. Quand M. Despr^aux vouloit se rejouir avec ses amis, il en- 

 voyoit aoheter des biscuits ohez Mignot, pour avoir la satire de 

 Cotin. Cependant la colfere de Mignot s'apaiaa, quand il vit que 

 la satire de M. Despreaux, bien loin de le d^crier, comme il le 

 craignoit, I'avoit rendu extremement c^lebre. En eflfet, depuis 

 ce temps-la tout le monde vouloit aUer ohez lui. Mignot a ga- 

 gne du bien dans sa profession, et il fait gloire d'avouer qu'il doit 

 sa fortune a M. Despreaux.' 



