meals has a great share in the happiness of their lives.

This observation, though new in France, has not escaped the notice of Richardson,* the English moralist. He has worked out the idea in his novel, Pamela, by painting the different manner in which two married couples finish their day. The first husband is a lord, an eldest son, and therefore heir to all the family property: the second is his younger brother, the husband of Pamela, who has been disinherited on account of his marriage, and lives on half-pay in a state but little removed from abject poverty.

The lord and lady enter their dining-room by different doors, and salute each other coldly, though they have not met the whole day before. Sitting down at a table which is magnificently covered, surrounded by lackeys in brilliant liveries, they help themselves in silence, and eat without pleasure. As soon, however, as the servants have withdrawn, a sort of conversation is begun between the pair, which quickly shows a bitter tone, passing into a regular fight, and they rise from the table in a fury

* Savarin wrote Fielding's name here, and it is still retained in all the editions I have seen. This is the more remarkable because Richardson has always been especially esteemed in France, and is still sometimes placed above Goldsmith as an English classic. What horror if the worthy but self-conscious shopkeeper knew that his godless rival had so long usurped the credit of having written Pamela!

of anger, and go off to their separate apartments to reflect upon the pleasures of a single life.

The younger brother, on the contrary, is, on reaching his unpretentious home, received with a gentle, loving heartiness and the fondest caresses. He sits down to a frugal meal, but everything he eats is excellent; and how could it be otherwise? It is Pamela herself who has prepared it all. They eat with enjoyment, talking of their affairs, their plans, their love for each other. A half bottle of Madeira serves to prolong their repast and conversation, and soon after they retire together, to forget in sleep their present hardships, and to dream of a better future.

All honour to the love of good living, such as it is the purpose of this book to describe, so long as it does not come between men and their occupations or duties! For, as all the debaucheries of a Sardanapalus cannot bring disrespect upon womankind in general, so the excesses of a Vitellius need not make us turn our backs upon a well-appointed banquet.

Should the love of good living pass into gluttony, voracity, intemperance, it then loses its name and advantages, escapes from our jurisdiction, and falls within that of the moralist to ply it with good counsel, or of the physician, who will cure it by his remedies.

XII.

ON PEOPLE FOND OF GOOD LIVING.

THERE are individuals to whom nature has denied a refinement of organs, or a continuity of attention, without which the most succulent dishes pass unobserved. Physiology has already recognized the first of these varieties, by showing us the tongue of these unhappy ones, badly furnished with nerves for inhaling and appreciating flavours. These excite in them but an obtuse sentiment; such persons are, with regard to objects of taste, what the blind are with regard to light. The second class are the absent-minded, chatterboxes, persons engrossed in business or ambition, and others who seek to occupy themselves with two things at once, and eat only to be filled.

Example.

Such, for example, was Napoleon; he was irregular in his meals, and ate fast and badly. But there, again, was to be traced that absolute will which he carried into everything he did. The moment appetite was felt it was necessary that it should be satisfied, and his establishment was so arranged that, in any place and at any hour,

I

chicken, cutlets, and coffee might be forthcoming at a word.*

Predestination to the love of good living.

There is a privileged class of persons who are summoned to the enjoyments of taste by a physical and organic predisposition.

I have always believed in physiognomy and phrenology. Men have inborn tendencies; and since there are some who come into the world seeing, hearing, and walking badly, because they are short-sighted, deaf, or cripple, why should there not be others who are specially predisposed to experience a certain series of sensations? Moreover, even an ordinary observer will constantly discover faces which bear the unmistakeable imprint of a ruling passion-such as superciliousness, self-satisfaction, misanthropy, sensuality, and many others. Sometimes, no doubt, we meet with a face that expresses nothing; but when the physiognomy has a marked stamp it is almost always a true index.

The passions act upon the muscles, and frequently, although a man says nothing, the various feelings

* French writers frequently refer to the eating habits of Napoleon. Thus, the drawn battle of Borodino (preceding the Moscow disaster), and his great defeat at Leipsic, are both explained to have been partly due to attacks of indigestion, the special cause in the latter instance being, it is said, a hurried feed upon shoulder of mutton stuffed with onions.

by which he is moved can be read in his face. By this tension, if in the slightest degree habitual, perceptible traces are at last left, and the physiognomy thus assumes its permanent and recognizable characteristics.

Those predisposed to epicurism are for the most part of middling height. They are broad-faced, and have bright eyes, small

Who are

naturally

posed.

forehead, short nose, fleshy lips, and predisrounded chin. The women are plump, chubby, pretty rather than beautiful, with a slight tendency to fulness of figure.

It is under such an exterior that we must look for agreeable guests. They accept all that is offered them, eat without hurry, and taste with discrimination. They never make any haste to get away from houses where they have been well treated, but stay for the evening, because they know all the games and other after-dinner amusements.

Those, on the contrary, to whom nature has denied an aptitude for the enjoyments of taste, are long-faced, long-nosed, and long-eyed: whatever their stature, they have something lanky about them. They have dark, lanky hair, and are never in good condition. It was one of them who in

vented trousers.

The women whom nature has afflicted with the