OPSOPHA&Y. 513 



fortunately is not the case^ we are fain to seek for infor- 

 mation from the only other source open to us, viz. from 

 the guests themselves; and here, how little we should 

 have learned, had all been, of the same spirit with one 

 bon vivant, who puts himself forward as a Clearchus for 

 others, will be the best gathered from his own words. 

 ' When,' observes this adept connoisseur of the school of 

 Athens, ' anybody invites me to deipnon, it is by no means 

 my practice, though they teU me it shows ton to stand 

 gaping at columns, statues, busts, candelabra, couches, or 

 the other furniture of the banquet-room : 



For all these thiags, however fine, 

 Won't stay a stomach come to dine.* 



I am there in the service of my teeth ; and, to employ 

 my eyes profitably in their behalf, endeavour to find out 

 some spot whence my oracle, the kitchen chimney, may 

 be conveniently consulted : when I see thence an im- 

 petuous black torrent of smoke pouring continuously, as 

 from a volcano, by a large mouth, and soaring majesti- 

 cally aloft in a swift, straight, dense, unbroken, and vo- 

 luminous column, that augurs well, for ' coming events 

 cast their shadows before ;' much smoke implies corre- 

 sponding fuel, and fuel we know is not consumed for no- 

 thing ; large preparations are then making in the kitchen, 

 and T gasterizef myself at the anticipation of so much 

 good cheer ; but if I observe, in place of a towering pillar 

 rising to the sky, a pale, feeble, and fitful jet of no di- 

 mensions, creeping out from a penuriousvent, and scarcely 

 escaped before it is whirled away and dispersed by the 

 first puff of air, then I gire my hopes at once .to the 



* ^Oyjrtp fiev e;^et Ta Totavra ivotKikrjv 



'AX' oiSev eorl tovto irpos rov yacrrfpa. 

 t Ta<rTpiC(o, I stroke my stomach. 



' He stroked up his beUy and stroked down his band.'— ©ray, 



z 3 



