was boring our host with his views on the Zollverein.
Altogether we were uncomfortable together, and were all delighted when
dinner was announced.

The _huitres de Marenne_, those genuine treasures of the deep, had
disappeared when ORTOLAN, filling a glass of old Grave, said, "Do you
know I hate a fellow who says he doesn't like a good dinner. It's
generally humbug, and when it isn't that, it's something worse. It shows
a want of humanity: he might just as well not like virtue, or be
indifferent about cleanliness. A good dinner is better than a bad
dinner, exactly as a good man is better than a bad man; and to be
without a taste, is as much a defect as to be without a heart. An
ancient philosopher" (ORTOLAN is literary, and has read ATHENAES) "has
defined man as a cooking animal, with great justice. Advance in cookery
accompanies advance in civilisation, and they doubtless will both reach
perfection at the same time. The culinary art has a direct effect in
refining mankind; in the beautiful words of the _Latin Grammar_, it is
emollient to the manners; nor does it allow them to be rough." (HIGSON,
who has no Latin, here sneered visibly.) "After this _potage bisque aux
ecrevisses_, we feel our hearts expand in universal philanthropy. Who
would grovel amid lower dirt when he can nourish his essence with stuff
so ambrosial?"

"Well, for my part," said honest MARTINGALE, "I don't care about your
French flummery--it's all to hide the taste of the meat. Give me a steak
of good English beef, you know what you're eating then. Who knows what
this patty has inside it?" "You old heathen," exclaimed the epicure with
pity, "eat therefore without inquiry; you should never work your
intellect at the same time with your digestion, or you will spoil the
operation of both. Eat in silence, for it is good, and thank the happy
age and country which puts such delicate things before its sons."

MARTINGALE grumbled about fellows worshipping a certain portion of their
physical constitution, but devoted himself nevertheless to the
suspicious _pate_ with great success. The enthusiasm of the less
prejudiced part of the guests, amongst whom is of course to be reckoned
your open-minded Correspondent, was quickened by some _foie gras_, and
rose to the highest pitch over a _salmi_ of woodcocks, which even
Martingale admitted to be no end of good, although the best woodcocks in
the world were to be shot on the governor's manors in Lincolnshire.
Proto