48 
was a Greek, before that incarnation 
which placed him as lecturer in the col- 
Tege of Alexandria. 
When any very well-known soul re- 
turns upon the earth, it is easy to foresee 
that it will shortly be surrounded by 
several of those souls who formerly co- 
operated with it: but the order of pre- 
sentation is often inverted. 
GASTROLOGY. 
La Mothe de Vayer was the first who 
_ solemnly proposed to recognize cookery 
as one of the fine arts; and under the 
denomination of guw3trolegy, to compile 
learned quartos on the science of en- 
hancing the physical and moral pleasures 
of the palate. - 
The ear, he contends, if given to man 
for need, is employed for luxury; and we 
hold it honourable to listen to sweet 
music, or to fine oratory. The eye may 
have been intended only to guard us 
against a post; but who is content with 
its necessary offices? For a fine pros- 
pect we laboriously climb a hill: for the 
painter Schneider’s inside view of a pan- 
try we gladly exchange our gold. 
And shali an organ no less exquisitely 
sensible than the ear and the eye, whose 
percipiency gives to all the pleasures of 
éuse their generic name, be less regarded 
than they, less honoured, less philoso- 
phized about? 
Some flavours are naturally pleasing, 
as of milk, honey, and grapes. Yet the 
highest relish ot these foods evidently 
consists in the associated ideas which 
‘they happen to excite, in the accessory 
linaginary perceptions which accompany 
them. Who likes milk in the country? 
Who does not enjoy it in the heart of 
London, when he can obtain a draught 
fresh from the cow, foaming in the jug, 
scattering its musky fragrance, and cal- 
ling up before the fancy rural ideas of 
green meadows, corn-clad hills, and 
smokeless air. Honey soon cloys; but 
let the honey be that of Hybla, famous 
in the classic page, and the Sicilian tra- 
veller will suck it up with delight. The 
grape, which hardly ripens on our gar- 
den-walls, is still a welcome dish at the 
dessert; because it awakens so many 
thoughts of mirth and grace derived from 
Bacchiaualian songs. 
Some flavours are naturally displeasing, 
_as of an oyster, or an olive; yet from 
being tasted in the society of friendship, 
or rank, and mingled in our recollection 
with the joys of life, they often become 
exquisitely enticing. 
Now if.it be true that the moral power 
Extracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. , [Aug. ly 
of every mouthful exceeds its physical 
power, and that the accessory ideas have 
more influence on the likes and dislikes 
of the palate, than the direct sensations 
occasioned by the thing applied, eating 
(q. e. d.) must be as well entitled as lan= 
guage itself, to be studied. It is well 
that words should be individually eupho-. 
nical; but it chiefly imports that the 
excited ideas should delight and stimue 
Jate. It is well that food should he 
wholesome; but 3t chiefly signifies that 
it should beckon into the soul agreeable 
trains ef thougit, about its far fetched 
material, or its traditional preparation. 
SHIP-MONEY. 
Macrobius says (Saturnalia, lib.i. c.7) 
that the oldest money known in Italy 
had, on one side, the head of Saturn, 
and on the other side, a ship: whence 
came the phrase used in tossing up, Heads 
or ships. Cum pueri denartos ia sublime 
jactantes Capita aut navia lusu teste ve- 
tustatis exclumant. Surely it would be- 
come this nation to stamp some of its 
coin with so apt an emblem of its com- 
mercial prosperity as a ship. 
Jt may however be suspected that these 
earliest coins known in Italy, were not 
made there, but in Egypt; and that the 
fizure called Saturn was the Egyptian god 
Phthas, who was considered as the father 
of all other gods, (Jablonski, jib. i. ¢. 2,) 
though finaily neglected for his children, 
On the altars of Phthas a splendid flame 
was kindled; and the original worshippers 
of Saturn are described by Macrobius, as 
employing a snnilar ritual, Aras Sa- 
turnias, non mactando viras, sed accensis 
luminibus excolentes. 
UTILI1Y OF NOVEL-READING. 
In the Annual Review, vol. vi. p. 380, 
the utility of novel-reading is thus de~ 
fended: 
“From the contemplation of fictitious 
distress, men most ethicaciously learn to 
feel. for real suffering. Where no cir-. 
cumstances of disgust intercept the pity, 
and no restraints of prudence the beni~ 
ficence, a tendency is easily generated 
to commiserate and to relieve. And 
this tendency, like the military exercises 
learnt on the parade, is the true basis of 
those practical efforts of philauthropy, 
which, in the real warfare with human 
misery, constitute the noblest triumphs 
of virtue.” : 
EMBASSY TO CHINA, 
Juan Gonzales de Mendoza, an Aus. 
gustin friar of Castile, was appointed in 
1584 by the king of Spain, to be his am- 
hassador in Chinas On his return, he 
drey 
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