For dinner we would advise to thofe, who have a due fense of the importance of health, to keep as much as

*

poffible to one difh. To prefer MUTTON to lamb, lamb to chicken or vea!, and BEEF, if tender, to either of the three last, and as fish is soon digested, to unite fome flesh meat with it, and to add to thefe vegetables. Could I believe I fhould be liftened to with indulgence, and not incur the general cenfure of prejudice, having nothing but philanthropy and the improvement of Science for my object, I would condemn, for convalefcent and weak perfons, thofe heterogeneous combinations called puddings †, and am inclined to condemn alfo, though not the fruit, yet the cruft of all pies. Let my readers here call to mind, that eggs and milk are both reckoned wholesome separate, but when combined, form a compound fuited only for strong ftomachs ‡.

OF

*When SANCTORIUS eat MUTTON, which was a food peculiarly grateful to his ftomach, his feelings were pleasant, and his perfpiration copious ;when he eat PORK, GOOSE, DUCK, MUSHROOMS, or MELONS, he was heavy and oppreffed; and found, by the balance, that his perspiration was die minished one half. This proves that even the perfpiratory difcharge is very

much under the influence of the STOMACH.

Very few exceptions to this rule. The plaineft puddings are generally very compound.

THE ART OF COOKERY I am apt to liken to the diabolical art of undermining a town. We all avoid the red poifon berries, and caution others against

Kk 2

them,

OF DRINKING AFTER MEALS.

A foreigner was invited to a party confifting, as he was told, of English philofophers, of whom he conceived a great deal. After a very plenteous dinner the cloth was cleared, and the bottles were placed on the table.

them, though we give our FRIENDS poisoned pickles, and preserves made in copper faucepans, &c. and hold out fuch temptations to over-gorging, which weak minds cannot refift.

-They dine

with dishes tortur'd from their native taste,

and mad variety, to fpur beyond

its wifer will the jaded appetite!

Is this for pleafure ?-Learn a jufter taste;

and know, that TEMPERANCE IS TRUE LUXURY.
Or is it pride ?-Purfue fome nobler aim.
Difmifs your parafites, who praise for hire;

and earn the fair efteem of honest men,

whofe praife is fame: Formed of fuch clay as yours,
the fick, the needy, fhiver at your gates.
Even modeft want may bless your hand unseen,
though hufh'd in patient wretchedness at home.
Is there no virgin, graced with every charm
but that which binds the mercenary vow?
No youth of genius, whofe neglected worth
unfofter'd fickens in the barren fhade?
No worthy man, by fortune's random blows,
or by a heart too generous and humane,
conftrain'd to leave his happy natal feat?
There are, while human miferies abound,

a thousand ways to wafte fuperfluous wealth.

ARMSTRONG.

He

He was preffed after five glaffes to drink on; but the ftranger perfifted in affuring the company " he felt no drought." These philofophers began then to be angry, and the foreigner rang the bell, and infifted on another courfe, for they ought, as much to eat against reason and inclination, as he to drink.

I would here recommend the excellent faying, a glass for digeftion, another for my relations, a third for my king, a fourth for my country, and a fifth for my enemy.

It will not, I think, admit of a doubt, that beer or water is the only drink neceffary in early youth; and that wine, and fpirituous liquors, of which luxury has introduced a variety, ought to be appropriated folely to the middle period, to the comfort of invalids, and the invigoration of old age.

Το

The great objection, however, against geneva and water, and brandy and water, is, that invalids are very apt to increase the proportion of the fpirit ordered, and the great Dr. FOTHERGILL, who was among the first who gave fanction to this practice, declared, fome time before his death, that he repented of having done fo, from the unfortunate habit that had fole on some of his patients.

On pleasure's flowery brink we idly stray,
mafters as yet of our returning way.
Seeing no danger-we difarm our mind,
and give our conduct to the waves and wind.

Then

To the credit of the prefent age, hard drinking is rarely practifed by perfons of liberal education; though, from the habit of fitting at table some hours after dinner, we are tempted to exceed in the quantity of wine; which even with perfons in health too frequently deftroys in time the tone of the ftomach.

Were the pleasure of the palate lafting, fays CORNARO, there would be fome excufe for inebriety, but it is fo tranfitory, that there is fcarce any diftinguishing between the beginning and the ending; whereas the difeafes it produces are very durable. This fact is well known in the diftilleries,

Then in the flowery mead, or verdant shade,
to wanton dalliance negligently laid,

we weave the chaplet, and we crown the bowl,

and fmiling fee the nearer waters roll,

till the strong guft of raging passions rise,

till the dire tempeft mingles earth and skies,

and swift into the boundless ocean borne,

our foolish confidence too late we mourn ;

round our devoted heads the billows beat,

and from our troubled view the leffening lands retreat.

PRIOR.

Spirits, fays the Abbe RAYNAL, were the gift the most fatal the old world ever made to the new. It was foon obferved, that it disturbed their domestic peace, deprived them of their judgment, and made them furious. In vain did fome Frenchmen expoftulate with them, and endeavour to make them afhamed of these exceffes." It is you," answered they," who have "taught us to drink this liquor, and we cannot do without it. You have done the mifchief, and it admits of no remedy.”

where

where the SWINE which are fattened by the fpirituous sediments of barrels, all acquire diseased livers.

Mark what happens to that man who drinks a quart of wine or of ale, if he has not been habituated to fo violent and exhaufting a ftimulus. He lofes the use both of his limbs and of his understanding! He becomes a temporary idiot, and has a temporary ftroke of the palfy! And though he flowly recovers after fome hours, is it not reasonable to conclude, that a frequent repetition of fo powerful a poifon must at length permanently affect him?—If a perfon accidentally becomes intoxicated by eating a few mushrooms of a peculiar kind, a general alarm is excited, and he is faid to be poifoned; but fo familiarized are we to the intoxication from vinous spirits, that it occafions merriment rather than alarm.

The flory of Prometheus feems to have been invented by physicians in those ancient times, when all things were clothed in hieroglyphic, or in fable. Prometheus was painted as stealing fire from heaven, which might well represent the inflammable fpirit produced by fermentation; which may be faid to animate or enliven the man of clay: whence the conquest of Bacchus, and heedless mirth and noise of his devotees.-But the after punishment of those, who fteal this accurfed fire, is a vul