OPSOPHAGT. 501 



triotism and every virtue of civil and domestic life deve- 

 loped fast : and this amelioration was effected by the 

 spread and progress of cookery !* Some even carried 

 their arrogance to the pitch of declaring^ like Menecrates, 

 the ' medical Jove ' of his day, that cooks were the sole 

 arbiters of the health and happiness of the whole human 

 race.f 



* Juvenal, tracing tlie origin and progress of society, attri- 

 butes to mind what is here set down to the score of well-cooked 

 meat. 



The common Parent, when the world began, 



To aU gave life, but mind alone to man ; 



That ties of love reciprocal might lead 



To mutual offices in mutual need ; 



To walk together on life's common way. 



And give tomorrow what we ask today ; 



That man might quit the forest and the grove, 



Nor o'er the worlds in lawless wanderings rove ; 



But seek the threshold of their powers conjoin'd 



The common weal of all on each to bind ; 



To rush to arms, and rally at the note 



Of the hoarse trumpet's war-denouncing throat. 



On the same terms to perish or be free, 



Anil close the barrier with a common key. 



t This Sicilian physician, who raised the iatric art, in his own 

 person and esteem, much higher than it has since aspired, ad- 

 dressed the following note to PMlip : — ' Thou art Eing of Mace- 

 don, — I, of Medioiae : thou canst kill men as many as thou pleas- 

 est, I can cure and save them with equal readiness. Thy body- 

 guard is small, and paid ; mine consists of unnumbered votaries, 

 whom I, Jupiter, have brought iato or kept in being.' Phihp's 

 retort to this was excellent, and ran briefly thus : ' Philip to Me- 

 necrates, Health !' 



