LIBRARY OF THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF HOME ECONOMICS CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA, NEW YORK 3 S •D = It - ^ ,2 »— ^_B^_ E 0=- =n| >« ;5^^r^ ^=^ Q. tn J "5:==o £• 2 1 c ^ -"^ (C ^ a>^^^=id- ^S ^^^^J05 m CO g CO (O C ^"^""^^ 08=^^^^ X £ t- < Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000405724 A HANDBOOK OF GASTRONOMY "^ ( A HANDBOOK OF GASTRONOMY (Physiologie du Gout) JEAN ANTHELME BRILLAT-SAVAKIN WITH IliiUSTRATIONS BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY MDCCCCXV TKG31 HojuJdC THREE HUNDRED AND SEATENTT-FIVE COPIES OF THIS BOOK WEBB FEINTED AT THE ErVEBSIDE PRESS, JUNE, 1915 THIS COPY IS NUMBER /yO CONTENTS Inthoduction, by Charles Monsblet .... xvii Aphobisms of the Professor xxvii Dialogue between the Author and a Friend . xxxi Biography xxxix Preface by the Author xlv MEDITATION I. — On the Senses 1. Number of the Senses 1 2. Action of the Senses 2 3. Improvement of the Senses ....... 4 4. Power of the Taste 7 5. Object of the Action of the Senses 7 MEDITATION II. — Op Taste 6. Definition of Taste 9 7. Mechanism of Taste 10 8. Sensation of Taste 12 9. Savours 14 10. Influence of Smell on Taste 15 11. Analysis of the Sensation of Taste 16 12. Succession of the Divers Impressions of Taste ... 18 13. Enjoyments due to the Taste 19 14. Supremacy of Man 20 15. Method adopted by the Author 23 MEDITATION III. — On Gastronomy 16. Origin of Sciences 25 17. Origin of Gastronomy 26 18. Definition of Gastronomy 27 19. Various Objects treated on by Gastronomy ... 28 20. Use of Gastronomic Knowledge .... i . 30 (v) CONTENTS SI. Influence of Gastronomy on Business 31 22. A Gastronomic Academy 32 MEDITATION IV. — Appetite 23. Definition of Appetite 33 24. Anecdote 34 25. Great Appetites 36 MEDITATION V. — On Food in General 26. Definition 41 27. Analysis 41 28. Osmazome 42 The Composition of Foods 44 29. The Vegetable Kingdom 45 Difference between Fat and Lean 47 30. Individual Instance 48 MEDITATION VI. — Special Kinds of Food 31. Specialities 50 32. Pot-au-feu, Soup, etc 51 33. Of Bouilli 51 34. Poultry 52 35. The Turkey 54 36. Turkey-Lovers 55 37. Influence of the. Turkey on the Money Market . . 56 38. An Exploit of the Professor 57 39. On Game 62 40. Of Fish 66 Anecdote 67 41. Muria. Garum 68 42. Philosophical Reflection 71 43. Of Truffles 72 44. Erotic Virtue of Truffles 73 Are Truffles Indigestible? 77 45. Sugar 80 (vi) CONTENTS Indigenous Sugar 81 Various Uses of Sugar 83 46. Of Coffee — Origin of Coffee 86 Various Modes of Making Coffee 88 Effects of Coffee 89 47. Of Chocolate — Origin of Chocolate 92 Properties of Chocolate 95 Difficulties in Making Good Chocolate .... 98 The Best Way of Making Chocolate 101 MEDITATION VII 48. Theory of Frying 103 Allocution 104 Chemistry 104 Application 105 MEDITATION VIH 49. Of Thirst 109 Different Varieties of Thirst 109 50. Causes of Thirst 112 51. Example 113 MEDITATION IX 52. On Drinks 117 Water 117 Prompt Effect of Drinks 117 53. Strong Drinks 119 MEDITATION X 54. Episodic on the End of the World .... 122 MEDITATION XI 55. On Gourmandise 125 Definitions 125 Advantages of Gourmandise 126 (vii) CONTENTS 56. Sequel 127 57. Influence of Gourmandise 128 58. Portrait of a Pretty Female Gourmand .... 131 Anecdote 131 Women are Gourmandes 132 59. Effects of Gourmandise on Sociability 132 Influence of Gourmandise on Conjugal Happiness . . 133 MEDITATION XII. — Of Goubmands 60. Every one who wishes it is not a Gourmand . . . 136 Napoleon ... 136 Gourmands by Predestination 136 61. Sensual Predisposition 137 62. Gourmands by Virtue of their Profession . . . .141 The Moneyed Classes 141 63. Doctors 142 64. Objurgation 144 65. Men of Letters 146 66. Pious People 147 67. Chevaliers and Abbes 149 68. Longevity of Gourmands 150 MEDITATION XIII 69. Gastronomic Tests 153 ( First Series — 5000 francs — Mediocrity . 156 Income J ^^^'^'^ Series — 15,000 francs — Comfort . 156 ( TMrd Series — 30,000 francs — Riches . 157 General Observation 158 MEDITATION XIV 70. The Pi,easuhbs of the Table 160 71. Origin of the Pleasures of the Table 161 72. Difference between the Pleasures of Eating, and the Pleas- ures of the Table 162 73. Effects 163 74. Artificial Accessories 163 ( viii ) CONTENTS 75. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries . . .165 A Sketch 166 MEDITATION XV 76. Halts of a Shooting Pabty 174 77. The Ladies 176 MEDITATION XVI 78. On Digestion 179 79. Ingestion 179 80. The Duty of the Stomach 181 81. Influence of Digestion . . 185 MEDITATION XVH 82. On Eepose 190 83. Time for Sleep 193 MEDITATION XVIH 84. Of Sleep 195 85. Definition 195 MEDITATION XIX 86. Of Dbeams 198 87. An Investigation to be Held 199 88. Nature of Dreams 200 89. System of Doctor Gall 201 First Fact 201 Second Fact 202 Conclusion 204 90. Influence of Age 204 91. Phenomena of Dreams 205 First Instance 205 92. Second Instance 206 93. Third Instance 207 (ix) CONTENTS MEDITATION XX 94. On the Influence op Diet on Befose, Sleep, and Dbeams 210 95. Effects of Diet on Work 210 96. Effects of Diet on Dreams 212 97. Consequence 213 98. Eesult 213 MEDITATION XXI 99. On Cokpulence 216 100. Causes of Corpulence 220 101. Continuation 222 102. Continuation 222 103. Anecdote 223 104. Inconvenience of Corpulence 225 105. Examples of Corpulence 226 MEDITATION XXH 106. A Pbesebvative ob Cuhative Treatment of Cohp- LENCE 229 107. General Rules 230 108. Continuation of the Begimen 234 109. Danger of Acids 235 110. Anti-Corpulence Belt 238 111. Peruvian Bark 239 MEDITATION XXm On Leanness 242 112. Definition — £inds of Leanness 242 113. Effects of Leanness 242 114. Natural Predestination 243 115. A Fattening Diet 244 MEDITATION XXIV Of Fasting 247 116. Definition — Origin of Fasting 247 (x) CONTENTS 117. How People used to Fast 248 118. Origin of the Relaxation of Fasting 250 MEDITATION XXV 119. On Exhaustion 253 120. Treatment 253 131. A Cure performed by the Professor 254 MEDITATION XXVI 122. On Death 267 MEDITATION XXVTI 123. Philosophical Histoet of Cookehy .... 260 124. Order of Foods 260 125. Discovery of Fire 262 126. Baking 263 127. Feasts of the Orientals. — Of the Greeks . . . .266 128. Banquets among the Bomans 269 129. Resurrection of LucuUus 273 130. Lectisternium and Incubitation 274 131. Poetry 277 132. Invasion of the Barbarians 277 133. The Age of Louis XIV and Louis XV .... 282 134. Louis XVI 287 135. Ameliorations in Relation to Art 287 136. Final Improvements 289 MEDITATION XXVHI 137. Of Parisian Restaurants and their Keepers . . 291 138. The Restaurant 291 139. Advantages of Restaurants 293 140. A Glance round a Dining-Room in Paris .... 294 141. Inconvenience of Restaurants 296 142. Competition . 296 143. Restaurants at Fixed Prices 297 (xi) CONTENTS 144. Beauvilliers ^^ 145. The Gastronomer at the Restaurant SOI MEDITATION XXIX Classical Goubmandise put in Practice . . . 303 146. History of M. de Borose 303 147. The Eetinue of ah Heiress 316 MEDITATION XXX. — Bouquet 148. Gasteonomical Mythology 317 Transition ^^ VARIETIES I. The Cure's Omelette 329 Preparation of a Tunny Omelette .... 331 Theoretical Notes on the Preparation of this Dish 331 II. Eggs in Gravy 332 III. A National Victory 333 IV. Ablutions 336 V. Mystification of the Professor and Defeat of the Gen- eral 338 VI. The Dish of Eels 340 VII. The Asparagus 342 VIII. The Plot 343 IX. The Turbot 346 X. Various Restorative Preparations by the Professor Improvised for the Case mentioned in Meditation XXV 350 XI. The Pullet of Bresse 353 XII. The Pheasant 354 Xin. Gastronomical Industry of the Emigres .... 357 XIV. Other Recollections of the Emigration .... 360 The Weaver 360 The Famishing Man 361 The Silver Lion 362 (xii) CONTENTS Stay in America 362 A Battle 363 XV. A Bundle of Asparagus 365 XVI. The Fondue 366 Receipt for the Fondue 367 XVII. Disappointment 368 XVni. Marvellous Effects of a Classical Dinner - . .368 XIX. Effects and Dangers of Strong Drinks . . .369 XX. Chevaliers and Abb6s 370 XXI. Miscellanea 372 XXn. A Day with the Bernardines 373 XXm. Happiness on a Journey 378 XXIV. Poetry 382 Song of Demochares at the Banquet of Dinias . 383 Song of Motin 384 Song of Bacan to Maynard 385 The Choice of Sciences, a Song by the Professor. 386 Impromptu, by M. Boscary de Ville-Plaine . . 387 The Agony, a Physiological Romance, by the Pro- fessor 388 XXV. M. Henrion de Pansey 388 XXVI. Addresses 390 XXVn. Privations, ffistorical Elegy 391 Envoy to the Gastronomers of Both Worlds .... 394 ILLUSTRATIONS Les Sens Frontispiece Les Aumens 42 Les Boissons 118 La Chasse et la PficHE 174 Influences 210 L'OBtsiT^ EX LA MaIGREUB 242 From engravings, in the first French edi- tion, by Bertall {Charles Albert d'Armmx). INTRODUCTION Fob a long time I wished to say something about Brillat- Savarin. This figure, smiling rather than laughmg, this well-lined paimch, this stylish mind and stomach, tempted me. The opportunity could not be better, and I profit by it. Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, or Brillat de Savarin (for he signs himself thus in his Essay on Duels), was bom at Belley, in the Ain, on the 1st of April, 1755, and died at Paris, on the 2d of February, 1826. He, therefore, lived seventy-one years. He had time enough wherein to eat. Moreover, nature had predestined him for this im- portant function. She gave him a lofty figure, robust health, and an inexhaustible flow of good humour. Without ambition, inclined to study, and sufficiently rich, he seemed to lead the peaceable and happy life of a country lawyer, who has a knife and fork laid for him in all decent country houses. Until he was thirty-four years old, people Saw him often going to and fro in the fertile country of Bugey, sometimes sitting down in well-provisioned inns, where strings of poultry were roasting, sometimes opposite to some jovial cur6, sometimes coping with noisy himtsmen. From that time, there remained in his memory those pre- cious receipts that he was to leave to posterity — the fon- due, the omelette with tunny, the stuffed pheasant, etc. The Revolution came and cut short all these joyous parties. His fellow-citizens, who had learnt to appreciate his good qualities, sent him to the Constituent Assembly. There Brillat-Savarin made not a worse figure than any ( xvii ) INTRODUCTION other; but he did not seem prepared for the great work that was going on. On returning to his department, he was named president of the civil tribimal. Nothing would serve but that he should occupy some position. What did they expect of him? I do not know. The year 1793 found him Mayor of Belley. He thought this work too heavy for his shoulders, and as Switzerland was only a few steps off, he went to seek there a refuge against a movement that he found it impossible to direct or to moderate. I do not know how far we have to believe in the persecutions which were said to have been directed against him; government had to occupy itself with many other things at that time. Certain it is, Brillat-Savarin went to the United States, where the repose he enjoyed during two years profited to his beloved studies. The pages which he has written about his stay in America are his best; among them are sketches of rustic glades and interiors, painted with a lightness and a charm that Chateaubriand himself might have envied. When he returned to France, the Directory was in full swing. Thrown on a sea of adventures, Brillat-Savarin, who had been deprived of his property at Bugey, accepted a post of secretary on the staff of the armies of the Re- public in Germany. Afterwards he was sent as commis- sary of the Government in the Department of Seine-et- Oise. Finally, after the 18th Brumaire, at which he was present, with a resignation that I can scarcely appreciate, the Senate housed him for life, and made him a counsellor in the Court of Cassation. It was in this haven that he passed the twenty-five last years of his life, scarcely troubled by the overthrow of the Hundred Days, maintained by all governments, which philosophically he refrained from disputing. It was on ( xviii ) INTRODUCTION this magisterial seat that he elaborated his Handbook of Gastronomy, the work and epitome of his whole life. We find ourselves here in the presence of a well-known book that can only be mentioned with praise; of a book conceived soundly, proceeding by clever deductions, writ- ten in the most natural style in the world, which does not exclude liveliness and an originality peculiar to the temperament of its author. I only find a little stiffness here and there in the arrangement, which is even a mark of reverence to the reader, and a proof that the author seeks to please him by cutting up the pieces in small and attrac- tive mouthfuls. Where Brillat-Savarin excels most is in anecdote: he possesses its real secret, elegance, and tone. He has gained and gains many men every day to gas- tronomy solely by the perfect wisdom of his precepts and by his good and well-balanced common sense. Coming after Grimod de la Reyniere, he united in a body of doc- trine the teaching and the scattered information that he had gathered from him. He fixed them for ever. There was between Grimod de la Reyniere and Brillat-Savarin the difference that there is between a great eater and a delicate eater.' > We must make evetything enter into a biography, even a discordant note, on the condition that it comes from an authority. Now, this title of "delicate eater" has been denied to Brillat-Savarin. And by whom? By the Marquis de Cussy, to whom no one will deny authority. I am quite amused in transcribing the following lines from his Art Culinaire : "Brillat-Savarin ate copiously and ill; he chose little, talked dully, had no vivacity in his looks, and was absorbed at the end of a repast." In other respects, the Marquis de Cussy was willing to praise his rival. At the beginning of the Observations tiiat he has left on the Handbook of Gastronomy, he said: "To perceive some slight spots on the sun does not prevent us from recognising the brilliancy of its rays." This is right; but as a guest he is not less cruelly, and, I fear, tmjustly attacked. Brillat- Savarin was like the rest of the world — he had his good and his bad days. ( xix ) INTRODUCTION Grimod de la Reyniere was a Rabelaisian, a perpetual starveling, with a number of preferences, nevertheless, and a man who could not be prevented from casting a tender regard on the junketing at Camacho's wedding. His en- thusiasm, which was unbridled, drove him to cry out some- where, "I would eat my own father with such a sauce." And he would have done it. Brillat-Savarin does not go so far. He would never have eaten anybody with any sauce whatever. The principal merit of Grimod de la Reyniere, and that one which endows him with sovereign claims to our grati- tude, is that of having been the historian of cookery. His eight years of the Almanack of Gourmands represent eight years of contest. He has, as all journalists have, a good many inevitable faults, compliances, injustices, and careless judgments, but one cannot deny him ardour, de- votion, and that faith which raises pie-crusts. We may say of him that he kept going the kitchen-stoves, after having saved them, perhaps, during the great shipwreck of the Revolution. At all events, he is the connecting link that unites the past to the future. Brillat-Savarin is more especially a legislator. In him there is something of Boileau. Yet he warms up now and then. His saying, "And you will see marvels," has become celebrated. The Handbook of Gastronomy has had many editions, but not in quick succession: its success was made slowly and surely. Nowadays it is what is called a library book. I have questioned many people who knew Brillat- Savarin, especially in the society of the Recamiers, of whom he was a relative. Their opinion was unanimous about him; he was amiable, delicate, highly fashionable. (xx) INTRODUCTION His hobbles were connected with his favourite passion, and it is thus that he upset the feelings of all his colleagues in the Court of Cassation by the smell of the game that he carried in his pockets to get high. A frequenter of the Cafe Lemblin, he came there with a dog who became legen- dary. He lived in the Rue des Filles-Saint-Thomas. His widow lived long after him. M. Lefeuve affirms that she was still living in 1859, in the Rue Vivienne. I have read nearly all that has been written about Bril- lat-Savarin. Can it be believed? The article about him in the Biographie Universelle is by Balzac, one of the least eating men that has ever existed in the literary world, a man who did not spend more time at table than Napoleon. But gastronomy is made up above all of lost time. We do not " take a snack " in the kingdom of Comus. The article of Balzac is none the less well composed, as all that has come from the pen of this writer, who has carried so far his gifts of intuition and assimilation.' Some other litterateurs, Alphonse Karr, Eugene Bareste, etc., have also published notices on Brillat-Savarin, but I can see nothing characteristic in any of them. The Physiologie du Gcy&t has had an imitator or rather a continuer in the anonymous author of a book which ap- peared in 1839, xmder the title, Neophysiology of Taste, or General Dictionary of French Cookery, Ancient and Mod- em etc., etc., dedicated to the author of the Memoirs of the Marchioness of CrSquy (Paris: one large octavo vol- viae of 635 pages). It is a very excellent repertory, very practical, filled with amusing digressions, and which de- * Balzac owed this compliment to Brillat-Savarin, for it is his Phy- sMogie du GoUt that inspired him with his Physiology of Marriage. He introduces also "Meditations" and "Aphorisms," and borrows the pro- fessorial accent. (xxi) INTRODUCTION serves to be better known. Its author, who is assuredly a bom gastronomer, teases often on several points his il- lustrious predecessor, which does not prevent him from rendering justice to his high competence. From indica- tions almost certain, and especially from the dedication, I believe that I am right in attributing the Neophysiohgy of Taste to the Count de Coiu-champs. This was also the opinion of Roger de Beauvoir. Has gastronomy progressed since the time of Brillat- Savarin? This is a question that I hear often put, and to which I would gladly reply in the affirmative; but I look in vain for the tables that are praised or the hosts that are renowned. Where are the great cooks? What names have we now to oppose to those of Carfime and Robert? Yet, nevertheless, we eat a great deal; restaurants are multiplied to infinity. What has cookery gained? I ought rather to say what it has lost. Nearly all the roasts are now done in the oven. An abomination! An old and worthy cook, finding himself without re- sources, went out one morning concealing as best he could under his overcoat something long and slender wrapped in paper. He turned towards the pawnshop of the Rue des Blancs-Manteaux, the central depot and mother-house of the French monts de jriMS. There he went before one of the windows and put his parcel before the clerk. *' What is this?" said the man. "It is Ernestine, the faithful companion of all my life." And in pronouncing these words, the cook wiped away a big tear. "Open the parcel," said the clerk. The cook did so; and exhibited a spit, sharp and shining. "The queen of spits!" he miu-mured. ( xjdi ) INTRODUCTION "We don't lend anything on that here," replied the clerk. "Did you speak?" "I told you that we never take spits in pawn." "Unless they are set with diamonds," said another face- tious clerk. The cook remained immoveable, without understanding, while everybody laughed around him. "Now, be off," said the employ^; "you are in the way." "What do you want me to do with it?" sighed the poor man; "they don't cook more anywhere!" "Pack up and hook it, I tell you." "O Ernestine! what will become of us?" After this cry, which would have melted the heart of a wild beast, but which did not move the clerks of the pawn- shop, the unhappy man picked up his spit, which he did not take the trouble to wrap up, and ran out with quick steps. In the road everybody turned to look at this weep- ing man, brandishing this rod of iron. The solicitude of the practitioners of the present time — and there are many clever ones — is entirely devoted to the ornamental matters of the kitchen, to decorations, to the service of the table. They attend to the "aspics," "chartreuses," or any "set piece"; they merely work for show. A cook is now only an impresario of a theatre, whose whole mind is exclusively engrossed with decorations and costumes. Therefore, why not let Ch6ret paint meals for us? In all stages, and among all classes of society, I en- counter this invading mania of " keeping up appearances." Shall I speak of official cootery, of ministerial dinners, where a band plays at intervals; a theatrical invention, ( xxiii ) INTRODUCTION injurious to the guests, and which destroys conversation. These are not the dinners to which people go to eat. There, especially, the cook is more proud of a Chinese kiosk on a rock in coloured and spun sugar, which no person dare touch, than of a carp h la Chambord treated in a masterly way. Since the days of Cambac6rSs, official cookery has ceased to exist. Another cause of the stationary state of gastronomy is, that all dinners are like each other. That which you ate yesterday in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, you will eat to-morrow in the Faubourg Saint-Honor6. At the end of the week you recognise that you have merely changed your knife and fork; the chief dishes of the menu have always been the same; a turbot with two different sauces, a " filet a la royale," fowls "k la Perigueux," a York ham, and a dish of crayfish. This poverty of imagination, this absence of research, are unworthy of a country such as ours. We must act. But how? Formerly there were groups, series of intelligent and special men, who met to eat. These groups were a perpetual stimulant for the cooks; they have disappeared and are not now replaced; but they may be. Without looking too far, we find, principally amongst cer- tain doctors, a few sparks of the sacred fire. The Renais- sance may also come from the clubs, which only have to show themselves more imperious in the matter of their dinners. One of the last good "chefs" of the Jockey Club of Paris was Jules Gouffe, whose style was pretty and easy, without too much show. Good female cooks have become more rare than the phenix, and are worth their weight in gold. Upon the whole, the situation should be more cheerful. French gas- tronomy lives on its past, and has lost nothing of its pres- ( xxiv ) INTRODUCTION tige in the eyes of the stranger; but this is not enough. The pause is too marked. May the perusal of Brillat-Savarin excite ambitions and determine vocations. ^ CHAELES MONSELET Fabis, 30th November, 1879. ' I add a last note to perpetuate one of my surprises. Neither Brillat- Savarin, nor Grimod de la ReyniSre, nor even the Marquis of Cussy, have given a great importance to wine. It seems that they only considered it as a, digestive element. Provided that it was good, they did not ask for more; and they did not make any distinctions between our innumerable brands of Burgundies and of clarets. Was the exquisite sense of this im- portant part of taste entirely wanting to them? In this respect, at least, we ore superior to them. APHORISMS OF THE PROFESSOR TO SERVE AS PROLEGOMENA TO HIS WORK, AND AS AN ETERNAL BASIS TO SCIENCE The world would have been merely nothing except for life. All that lives, feeds. n Animals feed, man eats; wise men alone know how to eat. m The destiny of nations depends on the manner wherein they take their food. IV Tell me what thou eatest, and I wUl tell thee what thou art. V The Creator, though condemning man to eat to live, invites him to do so by appetite, and rewards him by en- joyment. VI Good living is an act of our judgment by which we grant a preference to those things which are agreeable to the taste above those that have not that quality. ( xxvii ) APHORISMS OF THE PROFESSOR vn The joys of the table belong equally to all ages, condi- tions, countries, and times; they mix with all other pleas- ures, and remain the last to console us for their loss. vm The table is the sole locality where no one during the first hour feels himself tired. IX The discovery of a new dish is more beneficial to hu- manity than the discovery of a new star. X The dyspeptic man and the drunkard are incapable of either eating or drinking. XI The order of food is from the most solid to the most light. xn The order of drink is from the mildest to the most heady and the most scented. xin To say that we should not mix our liquors is a heresy. The tongue becomes saturated, and after the third glass, the finest wine only gives an obtuse sensation. XIV Dessert without cheese, is like a pretty girl with only one eye. ( xxviii ) APHORISMS OF THE PROFESSOR XV A cook may be educated, but a "roast cook" must be bom such. XVI The most indispensable quality in the cook is punctu- ality, and such ought to be the duty of the guests. XVII To wait too long for a late guest denotes a lack of con- sideration to all those who are present. xvm He who receives guests, and pays no personal care to the repast offered them, is not worthy to have friends. XIX The hostess should always assure herself that the coffee is good, and the host that the liqueurs are of the finest quality. XX To invite any one, implies that we charge ourselves with his happiness all the time that he is under oiu* roof. DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND A FRIEND {After the first compUmenis) Friend This morning, at breakfast, my wife and I decreed in our wisdom that you should print, as early as possible, your "Gastronomic Meditations." Author What women will, God wills. This is, in five words, the whole Parisian charter. But I do not belong to that parish, and a bachelor . . . FRiiasfD Good Heavens! Bachelors are as much broken in as the rest, and often to our great prejudice. But here celi- bacy will not help you, for my wife pretends that she has a right to commajid, because it was at her place in the country that you wrote your first pages. Author You know, dear doctor, my deference to ladies; you have more than once praised my submission to their orders; you were also amongst those who said that I should make an excellent husband, and nevertheless I cannot print. Friend Why? ( xxxi ) DIALOGUE Author Because, devoted by the nature of my profession to seri- ous studies, I fear that those who merely know my book by the title-page will imagine that I only occupy myself with insignificant things. Friend A panic terror! Thirty-six years of work, public and continuous, have established for you a contrary reputa- tion. Besides, my wife and I think that all the world will be glad to read you. AUTHOB Really? Friend Educated men will read you, to divine and learn that which you have only sketched out. Author That may well be. Friend Women will read you, as they will see clearly that . . . Author Dear friend, I am old; I have acquired wisdom. Mis- erere mei. Friend Gourmands will read you, inasmuch as you do them justice, and give to them the exact rank they merit in Society. ( xxxii ) DIALOGUE Author Now you are right. Poor gourmands; I cannot imagme they have been so long misunderstood. I have for them a fatherly love. They are so smart, and their eyes are so bright. Friend Moreover, have you not often said that your work would supply a lack in every library? Author I have said so; the fact is true, and I will be hanged rather than deny a letter of it. Friend But you speak as a man already convinced, and you will come with me to the . . . Author Oh no! If the profession of author has its pleasures, it has also its thorns, and I leave all this to my heirs. Friend But you disinherit your friends, your acquaintances, and your contemporaries. Have you the courage to act thus? Author My heirs! my heirs! 1 have heard it said that ghosts are singularly flattered by the praise of the living, and this is a sort of blessing I wish to reserve for myself in another world. ( xxxiii ) DIALOGUE Friend But are you certain that these praises will all go to the right address? Are you equally certain of the punctuality of your heirs? AUTHOB I have no reason to think that they will neglect a duty in consideration of which I will excuse them from so many others. Fbiend Will or can they have for your production the paternal love, and the author's care, without which a work is al- ways given to the public with an awkward air? Author My manuscript will be corrected, neatly copied, quite prepared for the press; the printing is all that will have to be done. Fbiend And the chapter of accidents! Alas! similar unlucky circumstances have occasioned the loss of so many cele- brated works, like that of the famous Lecat on the state of the soul during sleep, the labour of his whole life. AUTHOB That was, no doubt, a great loss; but I am very far from aspiring to such regrets. Fbiend Believe me, your heirs will have enough to do to arrange with the Church, with law, medicine, and themselves, so ( xxxiv ) DIALOGUE that the time, if not the will, must fail them to devote themselves to the various Cares which precede, accompany, and follow the issue of a work, however little the size may be. Author But the title, the subject, the good-natured friends? Friend The very word "gastronomy" makes every one prick up his ears. The subject is fashionable, and good-natured friends are as much gourmands as any one else. This should quiet you. Besides, do you not know that the gravest people have sometimes written light works: the President Montesquieu, for example? ' Author Yes, that is quite true. He has written the Temple of Gnidus, and it may be maintained that there is more real usefulness in thinking of what is at the same time a neces- sity, a pleasure, and an everyday occupation, than in say- ing that there were, more than two thousand years ago, a couple of dirty brats, one of whom ran through the bushes of Greece after the other, who had no desire to run away. Friend You surrender, then? Author I? Not at all; I have merely betrayed myself as an author. And this reminds me of a scene in English comedy that ■ M. de Montucla, known by a very good history of mathematics, wrote a dictionary of gastronomic geography; he showed me some parts ( XXXV ) DIALOGUE was very amusing; it is, I think, in a play which is called the Natural Daughter. You shall judge for yourself.* It is about the Quakers, and you know that those who are attached to this sect thee and thou the whole world, dress simply, never go to war, take no oaths, act deliber- ately, and, above all, never get in a rage. The hero of the piece is a young and handsome Quaker, who appears on the stage in a brown coat, broad-brimmed hat, and combed-down hair. This does not prevent him from falling in love. A fool, who is his rival, emboldened by his outward ap- pearance, and his supposed hidden feelings, ridicules and annoys him so much, that the young man, warming up little by little, falls into a rage, and thrashes with a master- hand the impertinent person who provokes him. The punishment executed, he at once resumes his habitual aspect, collects himself, and says in an afflicted tone, "Alas! the flesh is too mighty for the spirit." I act in the same manner; and after a very pardonable emotion, I fall back on my first opinion. Friend This is no longer possible. You have already, as you admit, betrayed yourself. I have captured you, and I take you to my bookseller. I will tell you that there is more than one person who has noised abroad your secret. of it whilst I was at Versailles. It is said that M. Berriat-Saint-Prix, who was a good consulting lawyer, has written a novel ia many volumes. 1 The reader must have perceived that my friend lets himself be "thou'd" (ttdoyer) without his doing the same to me. This is because my age is to his like that of a father to a son, and that although he has become a man of importance in every respect, he would grieve if I spoke to him in another way, ( xxxvi ) DIALOGUE Author Do not run the risk, for in my book I '11 speak of you, and who knows what I may say? Friend What can you say ? Do not imagine that you can frighten me. Author I shall not say that our common locality * is pleased with having given you birth, that at twenty-four years you al- ready published an elementary work which since then has become classical; that your deserved reputation already inspires confidence in you; that your outward appearance soothes your patients. Your skill revives invalids; your dexterity surprises them; your sensibility consoles them. Every one knows this; but I will reveal to all Paris — (rising) — to all France — (bridling up) — to the entire universe, the only fault I know in you. Friend (in a serious tone) And what is that fault, if you please? Author An habitual fault of which all my exhortations have not been able to correct you. ' Belley, the capital of Bugey, a charming country, where we find lofty mountains, hills, rivers, limpid brooks, cascades, cataracts, abysses, a real English garden of a hundred square leagues, where before the Revo- lution the tiers Mat were able to put a veto on the acts of the two other orders by the constitution of the country. ( xxxvii ) DIALOGUE Fbibnd (frightened) Speak out; it is too much to keep me in torture. AUTHOB You eat too fast.* {Here the friend takes his hat, and goes out smiling, thinking thai he has made a convert.) ' Historical. BIOGRAPHY The doctor whom I have introduced into the dialogue which precedes is not a fantastic being, as the Chloris of former days, but a handsome doctor quite alive. Those who know me will divine that I speak of Dr. Richerand. Thinking of him, I was led back to those who were be- fore his time; and I saw with pride that my arrondissement of Belley, in the Department of the Ain, my native place, had for a long time the honour of giving to the world doctors of the highest distinction, and I could not resist the inducement of erecting a modest monument to them in a short notice. In the days of the Regency, Drs. Genin and Civoct were practitioners of the first class, and brought back to their country a wealth honourably acquired. The first was entirely Hippocratic, and proceeded in form; the second, amongst whose patients were many fair ladies, was more gentle and more accommodating: res novas molientem, as Tacitus expresses it. Towards 1750, Dr. La Chapelle distinguished himself in the perilous career of a military surgeon. We have several good works from his pen, and we owe to him the treatment of inflammation on the chest by fresh butter, a method which cures like a spell when it is used in the first thirty-six hours of the attack. Towards 1760, Dr. Dubois obtained the greatest success in the treatment of low spirits, which then was a fashion- able malady, and quite as common as the ailments of the ( xxxix ) BIOGRAPHY nerves which have replaced it. The popularity which he obtained was so much the more remarkable, as he was far from being a handsome man. Unhappily he arrived too early at an independent for- tune, and fell into a career of laziness, contenting himself with being a good story-teller and an amiable companion. He was of a robust constitution, and lived more than eighty-eight years, in spite of dinners, or perhaps thanks to the dinners of the old and the new regime.' At the end of the reign of Louis XV, Dr. Coste, a na- tive of Chatillon, came to Paris. He was bearer of a letter of Voltaire for the Duke of Choiseul, whose goodwill he had the good fortune to gain during his first visit. Protected by this nobleman and by the Duchess of Grammont, his sister, young Coste made rapid progress; and after a few years Paris commenced to count him among the most hopeful doctors. The same protection which had brought him out tore him away from this tranquil and fruitful career to place him at the head of the medical department of the army that France sent to America to help the United States, which were fighting for their independence. After having ful- filled his mission, Dr. Coste returned to France, passed the unfortunate period of 1793 almost without being noticed, and was elected Mayor of Versailles, where even now the memory of his active, mild, and fatherly government is still preserved. ' I smiled when I wrote this article, for it reminded me of a great academician, whose eulogy had to be delivered by Fontenelle. The de- funct only knew how to play at every game, and, nevertheless, the per- petual secretary had the talent of devising a very fair panegyric of the usual length. (See further, the Meditation on the " Pleasures of the Table," where the doctor is in active employment.) (xl) BIOGRAPHY Soon the Directory recalled him to the administration of military medicine. Bonaparte named him one of the three general inspectors of the Army .Medical Service, and the doctor was constantly the friend, the protector, and the father of those young men who were destined to this career. Finally, he was named doctor of the Royal Hospital of the Invalides, and discharged those duties until his death. Such long services could not remain without recompense by the Government of the Bourbons; and Louis XVIII did an act of justice in conferring on Dr. Coste the Order of St. Michael. Dr. Coste died some years ago, leaving a venerated memory, a fortune entirely of a philosophical extent, and an only daughter, the wife of M. Delalot, who has dis- tinguished himself in the Chamber of Deputies by his lively and deep eloquence, which did not prevent his failure. One day when we dined with M. Favre, the clergyman at St. Laurent, our townsman. Dr. Coste told me of the serious quarrel he had had that very day with the Comte de Cessac, then Minister and Director of the War Depart- ment, on the subject of an economy that the latter wished to propose in order to please Napoleon. This economy consisted in subtracting from the sick soldiers half of their portion of toast and water, and washing the lint which was taken away from their wounds to use it a second or a third time. The doctor protested with violence against a plan that he considered abominable, and he was so full of his subject that he fell into a rage, as if the object of his wrath had been still present. I