h
Smollett describes so humourously in his _Peregrine Pickle_."

"That tact on which after all everything depends," answered the
counsellor, "is sure to be wanting, that nice knowledge of the exact
limit between too much and too little which nothing but instinct can
bestow; and even this instinct must be cultivated by studying the
properties of fire, the culinary powers of which can never be
described, and which a cook can only make himself master of by long
experience, judgement, and observation, nor even then unless he was
born a cook. The main point however is, that our tongue and palate
have been trained and fashioned from our childhood to particular
tastes, likings, and antipathies; so that often the very best, most
judicious, and admirable thing, if it come across us on a sudden as a
novelty, as something we have never set tooth on, and thus give a
shock to all our prepossessions, will be disregarded and abused; until
at length in course of time on our becoming familiar with the
stranger's merits, he is naturalized: and then the new knowledge we
have acquired will often exercise the most salutary influence and
throw much light on other dishes, both old and lately invented ones,
so that our palate is as it were strung with a new chord, which sends
forth a variety of delicious notes. Moreover the ages that are gone
and the ideas that prevailed among our forefathers are still acting
upon this _tastature_ of mankind, as a race made to relish, to discern,
and to enjoy; and as in philosophy and science, in politics and
government, so here too there is an unbroken chain; the accumulated
experience of centuries moulded us to be just such as we are; and this
state of our taste can and must only be modified by degrees; nor could
anything be more ruinous than a sudden revolution which should throw
everything topsy turvy. In every field of human action history is
man's best master."

"You yourself," said the guest, "should write a history of the
articles of food, the art of eating, and the progress of the human
mind in it."

"When one is oneself a practical artist," answered the counsellor,
"and so devoted a one as I am, so diligent in working at my art, and
so ready to try every new experiment in it, one must leave such
matters to people of an idler and more contemplative turn. If you aim
at doing everything, you will never do anything well and thoroughly."

"Why," resumed the other, "do we hear this perpetual abuse of