when, upon their going thence to the Univerfity, their knowledge in culinary matters is feldom enlarged, and their diet continues very much the fame; and as to fauces, they are in profound ignorance ?

It were to be wifhed, therefore, that every family had a French tutor for, befides his being Groom, Gardener, Butler, and Valet, you would fee that he is endued with a greater accomplishment; for, according to our ancient Author, Quot Galli, totidem Coqui," As many Frenchmen as you have, fo many Cooks you "may depend upon;" which is very useful, where there is a numerous iffue. And I doubt not but, with fuch tutors, and good houfe-keepers to provide cake and fweet-meats, together with the tender care of an indulgent mother, to fee that the children eat and drink every thing that they call for ; I doubt not, I fay, but we may have a warlike and frugal Gentry, a temperate and auftere Clergy; and fuch Perfons of Quality, in all ftations, as may best undergo the fatigues of our fleet and armies.

Pardon me, Sir, if I break-off abruptly; for I am going to Monfieur D'Avaux, a person famous for eafing the tooth-ach by avulfion. He has promifed to fhew me how to strike a lancet into the jugular of a carp, fo as the blood may iffue thence with the greateft effufion, and then will inftantly perform the operation of ftewing it in its own blood, in the prefence of myself and seve> ral more Virtuosi. But, let him ufe what claret he will in the performance, I will fecure enough to drink your health and the rest of your friends. I remain, Sir, &c.

LETTER

SIR,

SHALL make bold to claim your promife, in your laft obliging letter, to obtain the happiness of my correfpondence with Dr. Lifter; and to that end have fent you the inclofed, to be communicated to him, if you think convenient.

I

AM a plain man, and therefore never ufe compliments; but I must tell you, that I have a great ambition to hold a correspondence with you, especially that I may beg you to communicate your remarks from the Ancients concerning dentiscalps, vulgarly called toothpicks. I take the ufe of them to have been of great antiquity, and the original to come from the inftinct of Nature, which is the best mistress upon all occafions. The Egyptians were a people excellent for their Philofophical and Mathematical obfervations: they fearched into all the fprings of action; and, though I must condemn their fuperftition, I cannot but applaud their invention. This people had a vaft diftri&t that worshiped

the

the crocodile, which is an animal, whose jaws, being very oblong, give him the opportunity of having a great many teeth; and, his habitation and business lying moft in the water, he, like our modern Dutch whitfiers in Southwark, had a very good stomach, and was extremely voracious. It is certain that he had the water of Nile always ready, and confequently the opportunity of washing his mouth after meals; yet he had farther occafion for other inftruments to cleanfe his teeth, which are ferrate, or like a faw. To this end, Nature has provided an animal called the icbhneumon, which performs this office, and is fo maintained by the product of its own labour. The Egyptians, feeing such an useful fagacity in the crocodile, which they so much reverenced, foon began to imitate it, great examples eafily drawing the multitude; fo that it became their conftant cuftom. to pick their teeth, and wash their mouths, after eating. I cannot find in Marfham's "Dynafties," nor in the Fragments of Manethon," what year of the moon (for I hold the Egyptian years to have been lunar, that is, but of a month's continuance) so venerable an ufage first began for it is the fault of great Philologers, to omit fuch things as are most material. Whether Sesoftris, in his large conquefts, might extend the ufe of them, is as uncertain; for the glorious actions of those ages lay very much in the dark. It is very probable that the public use of them came in about the fame time that the Egyptians made ufe of juries. I find, in the Preface to the "Third Part of Modern Reports," * Whose tenter-grounds are now almost all built upon.

that

that "the Chaldees had a great efteem for the number "TWELVE, because there were fo many figns of the "Zodiack; from them this number came to the Egyp-" ❝tians, and fo to Greece, where Mars himself was "tried for a murder, and was acquitted." Now it does not appear upon record, nor any one that I have seen, whether the jury clubbed, or whether Mars treated them, at dinner, though it is most likely that he did; for he was a quarrelfome fort of a perfon, and probably, though acquitted, might be as guilty as Count Koningsmark. Now the custom of juries dining at an eating-house, and having glaffes of water brought them with tooth-picks tinged with vermilion fwimming at the top, being still continued, why may we not imagine, that the tooth-picks were as ancient as the dinner, the dinner as the juries, and the juries at least as the grandchildren of Mitzraim? Homer makes his heroes feed fo grofsly, that they feem to have had more occafion for fkewers than goofe-quills. He is very tedious in defcribing a Smith's forge and an anvil: whereas he might have been more polite, in fetting out the tooth-pick-cafe or painted fnuff-box of Achilles, if that age had not been fo barbarous as to want them. And here I cannot but confider, that Athens, in the time of Pericles, when it flourished most in sumptuous buildings, and Rome in its height of empire from Auguftus down to Adrian, had nothing that equalled the Royal or New Exchange, or Pope's-head Alley, for curiofities and toy-shops; neither had their Senate any thing to alleviate their debates concerning the affairs of the universe like raffling fome

times at Colonel Parfons's. Although the Egyptians often extended their conquests into Africa and Ethiopia, and though the Cafre Blacks have very fine teeth; yet I cannot find that they made use of any such inftrument; nor does Ludolphus, though very exact as to the Abyffinian empire, give any account of a matter fo important; for which he is to blame, as I fhall fhew in my Treatife of "Forks and Napkins," of which I fhall fend you an Effay with all expedition. I fhall in that Treatife fully illuftrate or confute this paffage of Dr. Heylin, in the Third Book of his "Cosmography,” where he fays of the Chinese, "That they eat their meat with two fticks of ivory, ebony, or the like;

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not touching it with their hands at all, and therefore 46 no great foulers of linen. The ufe of filver forks "with us, by fome of our fpruce gallants taken-up of "late, came from hence into Italy, and from thence "into England." I cannot agree with this learned, Doctor in many of these particulars. For, first, the ufe of these flicks is not fo much to fave linen, as out of pure neceffity; which arifes from the length of their nails, which perfons of great quality in those countries. wear at a prodigious length, to prevent all poffibility of working, or being serviceable to themselves or others; and therefore, if they would, they could not eafily feed themselves with thofe claws; and I have very good authority, that in the Eaft, and efe ially in Japan, the Princes have the meat put into their mouths by their attendants. Befides, thefe fticks are of no use but for their fort of meat, which, being pilau, is all boiled to

rags.