Cookery . 309 
1 
give these scraps of Latin: “Tis my vocation Hal / 5 as Falstaff 
observed ; Cooks, you know, are professionally addicted, to inter- 
larding. 
I begin then, with an explanation of technical terms. And I 
must observe, that much as the knowledge of women is underva- 
lued, I do not believe that one half of the chemists in Europe, ei- 
ther pay so much attention to the theory of their science, or super- 
intend so many, and such a variety of important and complicated 
experiments, as we require in general from well educated women. 
They are expected as a common accomplishment, to direct with 
elegance and economy the appointment of the table ; and to do 
the honours of the entertainment, not only with easy dignity, but 
in so doing, to recommend with science and with skill, the various 
dishes that may tempt the indulgence of appetite, and promote the 
pleasures of the repast. 
I give the following table of explanations, because those great 
men, the lexicographers, the compilers of Encyclopaedias, and cir- 
cles of sciences, think themselves above the contemptible science 
of Cookery, and give us neither knowledge of the art, or explana- 
tion of the terms. Although these wiseacres of literature, were in 
my time, by no means averse to Mr. Billy’s dinners. 
But the really great men and wise men of the world, have been, 
not gluttons and gormandizers, like Apicius or Heliogabalus, but 
Epicures ; whose pleasures were enjoyed when they had leisure 
for pleasure, with discrimination, elegance and taste. Indeed, 
what is taste, in its original signification, but the science of eating ? 
so of cheerfulness, what is it but the habitual good humour of a man 
accustomed to indulge in good cheer— -cheer-full ? 
Alcibiades and Pericles were Epicures : so was Lucullus : so 
was Julius Caesar: so was Augustus: and Mecenas. So was old 
Fritz of Prussia : and so is Buonaparte ; who has directed his 
chief pharmacist M. Cadet to institute and publish a scries of ex- 
periments on the best mode of making Coffee, and who has sanc- 
tioned the receipts of M. Appert, on the art of preserving viands 
by exposing them to heat in close vessels. 
No man who has seen the busy, good humoured complacency 
with which Mr. Fox used to tuck his napkin into the second button 
hole of his waistcoat on sitting down to table— — or who has cast 
his eye on Mr. Pitt’s plate and Mr. Pitt’s bottle at Grocer’s hall 
— — or who has perused the facetious sarcasms of brother Peter 
on Mr. Percival’s soup and claret—— can pretend that the dull 
compilers of Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias, have a right to turn 
