isen in Rome. Breakfast was not suspected. No
prophecy, no type of breakfast had been published. In fact, it took as much
time and research to arrive at that great discovery as at the Copernican
system. True it is, reader, that you have heard of such a word as
_jentaculum_; and your dictionary translates that old heathen word by
the Christian word _breakfast_. But dictionaries, one and all, are dull
deceivers. Between _jentaculum_ and _breakfast_ the differences are as wide
as between a horse-chestnut and chestnut horse; differences in the _time
when_, in the _place where_, in the _manner how_, but preeminently in the
_thing which_.

Galen is a good authority upon such a subject, since, if (like other
pagans) he ate no breakfast himself, in some sense he may be called the
cause of breakfast to other men, by treating of those things which could
safely be taken upon an empty stomach. As to the time, he (like many other
authors) says, [peri tritaen, ae (to makroteron) peri tetartaen,]
about the third, or at farthest about the fourth hour: and so exact is he,
that he assumes the day to lie exactly between six and six o'clock, and to
be divided into thirteen equal portions. So the time will be a few minutes
before nine, or a few minutes before ten, in the forenoon. That seems fair
enough. But it is not time in respect to its location that we are so
much concerned with, as time in respect to its duration. Now, heaps of
authorities take it for granted, that you are not to sit down--you are to
stand; and, as to the place, that any place will do--"any corner of the
forum," says Galen, "any corner that you fancy;" which is like referring a
man for his _salle a manger_ to Westminster Hall or Fleet Street. Augustus,
in a letter still surviving, tells us that he _jentabat_, or took his
_jentaculum_ in his carriage; now in a wheel carriage, (_in essedo_,) now
in a litter or palanquin (_in lectica_.) This careless and disorderly
way as to time and place, and other circumstances of haste, sufficiently
indicate the quality of the meal you are to expect. Already you are
"sagacious of your quarry from so far." Not that we would presume,
excellent reader, to liken you to Death, or to insinuate that you are
"a grim feature." But would it not make a saint "grim," to hear of such
preparations for the morning meal? And then to hear of such consummations
as _panis siccus_, dry bread; or, (if the learned reader thinks it will
taste better in Gree