608 Cookery . 
I am not concerned about the gloomy theories of Malthus, 
who has contrived to spread out through the heavy pages of a 
bulky quarto, but one, single, long-told, well-known truth, that 
a population is regulated by the means of subsistence, and that ex- 
u cess is usually counteracted by vice, war, pestilence or famine.” 
I acknowledge that population depends upon subsistence, and there- 
fore I assert, that next to agriculture which provides the raw ma- 
terial of food, Cookery among the arts, ranks highest in importance. 
For it teaches us so to manufacture the raw material, as to make 
it more economical, more grateful, more nutritious, and more di- 
gestible. I hope hereafter to explain the reason, why it is, that where 
Frenchman would live luxuriously, an Englishman or an American 
would starve. Swift said, that the man who should make two blades 
of grass grow, where one grew before, would rank among the 
greatest benefactors of mankind : nor is he less so, who can make 
that quantity of food nourish two people, that was heretofore con- 
sumed by one. 
Neither do I believe in the old adage, plus occidit gula quam 
gladius ; the appetite kills more than the sword : and if it were true, 
I would certainly rather die of turtle soup, than a Coup de Sabre , 
if it were left to me to determine the mode of exit. For my own 
part, I scruple not to acknowledge the wisdom of the poet’s advicey 
Let sages pretend to despise 
The joys they want senses to taste ; 
But let us, seize old time as he flies, 
And the blessings of life while they last. 
To all this I would add no restraint but the two maxims which re- 
gulate my theory : use 'without abusing : cherish no want , that pru~ 
dence forbids you to gratify . 
But that I may begin in regular order, I must follow the ex- 
ample of other scientific men ; and as you chemists explain to 
your students in the outset of your lectures, the terms of art you 
propose to employ, such as solution, saturation, precipitation, dis- 
tillation, sublimation, volatilization, condensation, effervescence, 
efflorescence, oxygen, hydrogen, &c. &c. I must explain the terms 
of art in my science also. Chemists, like the Romans of old, draw 
upon the Greek Language : every word, is legitimate si gra<eco 
fonte cadat : the French, is our Greek Language ; and their wri- 
ters our classics on the subjects in question. I am not a thorough 
Frenchman, but we maybe allowed to acquire knowledge wher- 
ever we can get at it ; fas est et ab haste doceri . You must for** 
