turkey at home you always reserve for yourself the parson's nose: I was resolved to regale myself for once in my life; and here I am, ready to begin, although I did not expect the honour of your company."* The "Physiologie du Goût" was published within a year of Savarin's death, yet he was gratified by seeing his work crowned with extraordinary success, speedily becoming (to use a phrase of Balzac's) the veritable decalogue of gastronomers-irrefragable as the laws of Kepler. Its success is certainly largely due to the beauty of the style, and to the original yet charming manner of the author. There are not only the clearness and elegance and felicity which are impressed on all good French writing, but his style is also so cheerful and picturesque that it positively smiles; one comic charm being the grand importance which he affects to attach to his subject. Had Savarin lived and written in the country of Walton's "Angler," or White's "Selbourne," "the Physiologie du Goût" would certainly have again and again pleasantly occupied the learned leisure of admiring commentators, and given occasion for many ingenious notes and exhaustive illustrations, biographical and antiquarian * A similar story is told of La Reynière, a celebrated gastronome of the last century.-(See Littré, under Sor.) as well as gastrological. The French, however, do not distinguish their favourite authors in the same way; nor does there appear to be any French edition of the "Physiologie du Goût" with notes. The present attempt to present Brillat-Savarin in English dress is due to a statement made last year in "Notes and Queries," to the effect that a translation was and had long been a decided want in English libraries. The notes inserted here and there by the translator will be easily distinguished from those of the French text-either intrinsically or by the latter being always marked by single inverted commas. August 16th, 1876. R. E. A. DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE AUTHOR AND HIS FRIEND.* Friend. This morning, at breakfast, my wife and I have in our wisdom decided that your "Thoughts on Gastronomy" must be printed as soon as possible. Author. What woman wills, God wills. In that single sentence is summed up all the ethics of the Parisians. But I am under a different jurisdiction; and a bachelor▬▬ F. Good heavens! The bachelors are as much under the rule as other men, as we know sometimes * This conversation is by no means merely imaginary. So real, indeed, is the character of the friend, that his "biography," occupying several pages, was originally appended to this dialogue. It is now omitted, as being decidedly a hors d'œuvre too many. only too well! But in this case you can't get off on the score of bachelorship; for my wife declares that she can insist upon it, because it was while visiting her in the country that you wrote the first pages of your book. A. My dear fellow, you know very well how I respect the ladies; more than once you have praised my submission to their commands, and, like some others, you used to say I should make an excellent husband. Yet, for all that, I shall not get it printed. F. And why? A. Because, after a professional life of earnest work, I am afraid of being thought a mere trifler by people reading only the title of my book. F. How absurd! As if thirty-six years of public and uninterrupted duties had not established for you a character quite the opposite! Besides, we believe, my wife and I, that everybody will wish to read you. A. Really? F. The learned will read you in order to discover what you have always been hinting at. A. That is quite possible. F. The women will read you because they will easily see that |