s, the more material conditions of human existence; and
wherever that will and that skill exist, life cannot be wholly ignoble.

1880. Dinner, being the grand solid meal of the day, is a matter of
considerable importance; and a well-served table is a striking index of
human, ingenuity and resource. "Their table," says Lord Byron, in
describing a dinner-party given by Lord and Lady Amundevillo at Norman
Abbey,--

"Their table was a board to tempt even ghosts
To pass the Styx for more substantial feasts.
I will not dwell upon ragouts or roasts,
Albeit all human history attests
That happiness for man--the hungry sinner!--
Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner."

And then he goes on to observe upon the curious complexity of the
results produced by human cleverness and application catering for the
modifications which occur in civilized life, one of the simplest of the
primal instincts:--

"The mind is lost in mighty contemplation
Of intellect expended on two courses;
And indigestion's grand multiplication
Requires arithmetic beyond my forces.
Who would suppose, from Adam's simple ration,
That cookery could have call'd forth such resources,
As form a science and a nomenclature
From out the commonest demands of nature?"

And we may well say, Who, indeed, would suppose it? The gulf between the
Croat, with a steak under his saddle, and Alexis Soyer getting up a
great dinner at the Reform-Club, or even Thackeray's Mrs. Raymond Gray
giving "a little dinner" to Mr. Snob (with one of those famous
"roly-poly puddings" of hers),--what a gulf it is!

1881. That Adam's "ration," however, was "simple," is a matter on which
we have contrary judgments given by the poets. When Raphael paid that
memorable visit to Paradise,--which we are expressly told by Milton he
did exactly at dinner-time,--Eve seems to have prepared "a little
dinner" not wholly destitute of complexity, and to have added ice-creams
and perfumes. Nothing can be clearer than the testimony of the poet on
these points:--

"And Eve within, due at her home prepared
For dinner savoury fruits, of taste to please
True appetite, and not disrelish thirst
Of nectarous draughts between....
.... With dispatchful looks in haste
She turns, on hospitable thoughts intent,
What choice to choose for delicacy best,
What order so contrived as not to mix
Tastes not well join'd, inelegant, but bring
Taste after taste, upheld