the general productions of the season, or the curious rarities of distant lands and oceans. With an ample fortune in his coffers he is not merely exempted from the fear of hunger, but he is entirely freed from the disgust and fatigue of uniformity in his courses. He is so able from knowledge to va ry them, that he is never tormented with the thought of being obliged again to eat today, what he had yesterday exquisitely relished. Hence there is a perpetual round of gratifying food. A mere rich man may alter his dishes in a thousand ways; he may have whatever fish the industry or skill of fishermen can supply, and whatever bird the month can regularly afford, or the accidents of weather may have forced on the coast; yet, if he have no power of selecting the best bits, and no taste in relishing his luxuries, he has squandered his money very little to his credit, and is not far removed from the spendthrift, who foolishly lavishes what he ignorantly possesses. One of the most celebrated poets of antiquity seems to have been a connoisseur of no ordinary kind. Horace has often been justly honored with a high rank, as the recorder of nice dishes, and the discriminator of excellent wine. No doubt he enjoyed at the table of Mecenas whatever, as a disciple of Epicurus, his cultivated taste could suggest, and the fortune of his noble entertainer was able to procure. As a teacher of moral wisdom, he did not indeed openly recommend a minute attention to elegant luxuries; yet his poems abound with the names and qualities of most excellent meats, and he seems to take a delight in ridiculing the sumptuous entertainments of the rich, only that he may shew his own nicety of perception, and the wide range of his Epicurean knowledge. A diligent reader may easily observe, that he dwells on subjects of this nature longer, than the point of satire requires; and that he reverts to them, whenever a slight opportunity offers. This argument I would not indeed press too far, because it would prove, that Bayle was licentious in his practices, as he was immoral in his writings; and that St. Jerom delighted in titillating his palate with rare Vol. II. No. 3. Kk titbits, as in writing to Salvian, he says, "Procul sint à con"viviis tuis phasides aves, crassi turtures, attagen Ionicus." Yet from this, combined with various circumstances in the writings of Horace, it is evident, that, so far from being of the school of Cato and the republic, he was a luxurious philosopher of the Augustan age. "Me pinguem et nitidum benè curata cute vises, « Cùm ridere voles, Epicuri de grege porcum." The world should therefore be grateful to Horace for having told them of the most esteemed rarities in his time. I am sure, that every man of any rank in the illustrious list of connoisseurs will thank him for the authority of his name in vindicating their science from reproach, for having adorned it with the fragrant flowers of poetry, and for giving the sanction of his name to the goodness of Lucrine oysters and Falernian wine, and to the delicacy of the barbel, the partridge, and the African hen. Why the pleasures of the table have been so much condemned, it is not easy to conjecture. One reason may however be given by a severe inspector of life. They have been denounced, not by the wise, who might have a right to judge, nor by the experienced, who were entitled to censure; but by the ignorant multitude, who continued the cry of hereditary folly, and by the envious, who hated what they could not enjoy, and who concealed their love of dainty living under the cloak of morals and sanctity. That these reproaches are wholly true, I certainly do not mean to avow; yet no one will suppose, that they are entirely false, who considers the extensive influence of envy over the generality of mankind, and who knows the determined opposition, which has immemorially subsisted between poverty and plenty. A rigid observer might therefore conclude, that Epictetus, who was a slave, could have no authority to talk against splendid banquets, to which he was not invited. He might also easily believe, that Diogenes was governed by envy or affectation, when he called Aristippus the parasite of the rich, for the former pretended to relish dried beans and mouldy soup, while the latter, like a wise companion of Plato and Xenophon, shared in all the delicacies of Athenian cookery. ers. If the love of good things be innocent, it receives some recommendation from the pleasure, which it bestows on othAn ambition of gratifying is common to all, in various manners and in various degress. It does not necessarily produce harm, and it may easily occasion no ordinary felicity. This desire often originates the large and splendid dinner parties in every great metropolis. There beauty or elegance presides. Nature and art there display the choicest productions, which are arranged with ingenuity, embellished with ornaments, and most appropriately adapted to excite the appetite, or gratify the taste. To this display of sumptuousness the epicure is invited, as a particular favorite. He knows, that his senses will revel amid such profusion, and his be nevolence inclines him to return the honor of the invitation by praising with truth the texture of the salmon, and the niceness of the sauce; the flavour of the mutton, and the dressing of the woodcocks. He expatiates on classical cookery, and proves most learnedly the inferiority of the Roman scarus to the turbot of Holland; and shews with peculiar discrimination the difference of goodness between the renowned lagois at the banquet of Lucullus and the invaluable ortolan, cui datur principatus, the pride of England and her titled peers. Such reciprocity of pleasure is not merely harmless, it is an absolute good; it diffuses smiles and kind words; it creates curious questions, which receive ingenious answers ; it causes gaiety or merriment, and the whole company is delighted with the real goodness of the dinner, and the peculiar erudition of the learned connoisseur. But the value of the science is evident not only from the harmless pleasure, it produces, but also from the solid advantages, which it directly originates. Of these I shall now mention only one, leaving the others to the imagination of the reader. This benefit arises from the employment, afforded to thousands in procuring the choicest dainties of sea and land. This gives a subsistence to many, who might other wise spend their time in idleness, or live on the pittance of charity, or else expire in poverty. Diligence and skill are exerted to discover the retreats of prized fish; to trace them in their wanderings; to learn the season of their reappearance and highest excellence, and to offer them, when caught, as uncommonly large or savoury, to the scrutinizing epicure. In like manner the nature of birds is made a subject of diligent inquiry. The month, in which birds of passage visit a country, the time of their continuance, and the best modes of entrapping them are investigated; and in consequence the industrious and ingenious sportsman has been recompensed by the rich purchaser, according to the rarity of the bird, and the celebrity of its flesh. Thus labor is provided with bread, and science itself has sometimes been enriched by the discovery of facts, which respect the nature, modes of living, and other mysteries in the history of animals. Who does not know, that many hundreds of men are yearly employed in catching those kinds of fish in our rivers and on our coasts, which are bought solely by the rich and luxurious? Many are the Dutchmen, who gain a most ample living by the turbot fishery; and their success is rewarded by the rich burgher of Amsterdam, and the opulent English nobleman, Thus, in the period of Roman magnificence, the bays, shores, and rivers of the Mediterranean were explored for oysters, mullets, sturgeon, schar, &c. to please the taste of an illustrious senator, or to gratify a hero, who had returned from the coarse and scanty fare of a camp. Thus also the island of Sicily, the Baleares, the banks of the Euxine, and its feeding streams, the coasts and the interior of Asia and Africa were diligently searched to procure the fine pheasants, peacocks, francolins, nightingales, &c. which adorned the banquets of imperial majesty. Surely no one will deny, that labor so various and unremitted was productive of solid advantage to those, who engaged in it; particularly, as the inducements were great, and as success was crowned with noble rewards. We are not sufficiently acquainted with the minute regulations of the Roman empire to know the number of men, em ployed in exertions so various and multiplied; but we may reasonably conclude, that thousands were continually active in such researches, and that millions of pounds were expended to purchase the rarities; as we well know, that generals, senators, princes, and emperors were the able and delighted purchasers of the choice productions of distant lands and oceans. By the formation of the numberless delicacies, which exist in the air, the water, and on the earth, nature evidently intended them for the service of man. They could not have been created merely to play, to sing, or to sleep. They were designed to subserve the necessities, or contribute to the pleasures of our species. By them we are incited to industry, and by them we are partly rewarded for the discharge of our duties. They are made by their numbers to promote the general good of life, by furnishing a plentiful subsistence to millions of mankind, or by their sweetness and rarity to gratify the feelings of a few, and so to teach them to be grateful for the happiness, they enjoy. If this be the evident design of nature, there can be no harm in applying the secrets of cookery to enhance their excellence, by rendering them agreeable or exquisite to the taste. The connoisseur may indulge himself in his turtle or canvass-back duck, without any fear of being reproached by his conscience, provided he does not spend too much time in such pleasant trifling, to the neglect of cultivating his mind, and to the forgetfulness of his duties to his neighbour and his Maker. I should hope, that every gentleman, who feels much correctness of Epicurean taste, may also be distinguished for eminence in literature, and ardor of piety; and the extenuator of dainty living, while he congratulates him on possessing the sensitive palate of Pope, hopes, that he may also be renowned for poetry and wit, and trusts, that he will never experience a death, like that of the bard, occasioned by the full enjoyment of potted lampreys ; and, while I wish, that every lover of nice morsels may have the glowing religion as well, as the keen appetite and disfriminating judgment of Johnson, I earnestly pray, that he |