ized upon Mr. Charles Sheridan's Account of the late Revolution in
Sweden, and seemed to read it ravenously, as if he devoured it, which
was to all appearance his method of studying. 'He knows how to read
better than any one (said Mrs. Knowles;) he gets at the substance of a
book directly; he tears out the heart of it.' He kept it wrapt up in the
tablecloth in his lap during the time of dinner, from an avidity to have
one entertainment in readiness when he should have finished another;
resembling (if I may use so coarse a simile) a dog who holds a bone in
his paws in reserve, while he eats something else which has been thrown
to him.

The subject of cookery having been very naturally introduced at a table
where Johnson, who boasted of the niceness of his palate, owned that 'he
always found a good dinner,' he said, 'I could write a better book
of cookery than has ever yet been written; it should be a book upon
philosophical principles. Pharmacy is now made much more simple. Cookery
may be made so too. A prescription which is now compounded of five
ingredients, had formerly fifty in it. So in cookery, if the nature of
the ingredients be well known, much fewer will do. Then as you cannot
make bad meat good, I would tell what is the best butcher's meat,
the best beef, the best pieces; how to choose young fowls; the proper
seasons of different vegetables; and then how to roast and boil, and
compound.' DILLY. 'Mrs. Glasse's Cookery, which is the best, was written
by Dr. Hill. Half the TRADE know this.' JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir. This shews
how much better the subject of cookery may be treated by a philosopher.
I doubt if the book be written by Dr. Hill; for, in Mrs. Glasse's
Cookery, which I have looked into, salt-petre and sal-prunella
are spoken of as different substances whereas sal-prunella is only
salt-petre burnt on charcoal; and Hill could not be ignorant of this.
However, as the greatest part of such a book is made by transcription,
this mistake may have been carelessly adopted. But you shall see what
a Book of Cookery I shall make! I shall agree with Mr. Dilly for the
copy-right.' Miss SEWARD. 'That would be Hercules with the distaff
indeed.' JOHNSON. 'No, Madam. Women can spin very well; but they cannot
make a good book of Cookery.'

Mrs. Knowles affected to complain that men had much more liberty allowed
them than women. JOHNSON. 'Why, Madam, women have all the liberty they
should wish to have. We have all the labour an