translation) as if to imply, that though men may excel in describing, this superiority of theirs is counterbalanced by a greater ability, on the part of women, for positive action. True enough, this is not openly asserted; but so much the worse, since that it is intimated there cannot be a doubt.

Her ladyship triumphantly instances the fact, that out of five Frenchwomen who have attempted to write tragedies, none of them, like so many authors, (a feminine hit at the men again,) felt the pain of a shameful defeat. Had she stopped here, it might have been replied, that there is nothing wonderful in a woman's losing all sense of shame, when once she has summoned boldness enough to tell the boxes, pit, and gallery, and by the pure mouths of drunkards, and women of illfame, for of such is the bulk of the corps dramatique, how she expresses her love and her hatred, her sorrow, her fear, and her joy. But no opportunity is left for such a retort, the triumphant paragraph ending thus: "But all their tragedies were very successful at their first appear ance." Labor omnia vincit improbus. The motive which can drive exertion so completely out of its proper sphere must be strong indeed, stronger than anything natural; and therefore it is no wonder that the labor improbus is crowned with success. It is almost trifling to go regularly through the course of Madame de Genlis' arguments on a question like this. But not to be wanting in respect for her amiable character and great ability, a few more of them shall be examined. She writes thus:-If too few women (for want of study and boldness) have written tragedies and poems, to be put on an equality with men in this respect, they have often surpassed them in works of another kind. This may be the case; but is that other kind a kind of equal dignity? No: then how idle is the subterfuge! Besides, it is by no means clear that nothing has ever been produced by men, to equal the letters of Sevigné, and other ladies, or the novels of De Stael. Even admitting that, the argument, as we have seen, must fall to the ground; how contempti

ble would it appear, then, if its only and vain support were found to be little else than a falsity! Again, too, in the case of Madame Deshoulieres, who is said to have no rivals in the line of poetry she has chosen; what, let us ask, is that line? Is it of a lofty or of an inferior order. If the latter, which happens to be the fact, what does this make for the equality of female authorship?

In a subsequent part of her Ladyship's discourse, she insists, that since women are admitted to possess a sensibility stronger than that of men, they must therefore be owned to have that energy, without which, she asks, what is sensibility? Surely she can have reasoned but little upon the matter, if she is not aware that sensibility can exist without energy. But she will grow wiser as the rage of technical knowledge increases among the ladies. When her studies are brought to the modern theories of physiology, she will hear that there are some nerves which only feel, and others which only move. This is a parallel case to that of mental sensibility. There are some minds incapable of any thing beyond passive impressions; there are others in which excitement leads to active energy. In the name of all that is loving and lovely, let the fair still wield the weapons of their weakness, and still let them conquer and bliss. A woman's place is in the bosom of her family; her thoughts ought seldom to emerge from it. True it is indeed, that " the taste of writing and the desire of celebrity make her careless and disdainful of the sympathy of domestic duties;" and great indeed is Madaine de Genlis' error in declaring that "these duties, in a well-ordered household, can never occupy more than an hour each day." She must have been asleep, to have ever dreamt of such an absurdity. Can old age be cheered, can infancy be instructed, can sickness and sorrow be tended and consoled, at the expense of sixty minutes per diem? And yet these are the duties of a woman; and not merely the "settling her accounts in the morning, and giving her orders to her stewards." Perhaps authorship is better for a lady than dissipation, if they are not pretty much the same thing;

but certainly it is not so good as domestic virtue. Man must abstract himself in many ways, and for many important purposes; but the heart of

woman ought to be ever sympathising, and in active kindness, with its nearest and dearest objects of affection.

MADAM," said Johnson to Miss Seward the Poetess, at a dinner at Dilly's the bookseller, "I could write a better book of cookery than has ever been written. It should be a book upon philosophical principles. You shall see what a book of Cookery I shall make. Women can spin very well, but they cannot make a good book of cookery."

Here, however, we find realised, by our old favourite, Mrs Margaret Dods, the Doctor's own happy idea of a 66 Synod of Cooks," combining their talents for the purpose of producing, on his own principles, a book of receipts in Modern Cookery. If it were necessary that what is intended to be useful should be uniformly dull, we might question the merits of this New System of Cookery, for, though treating of a grave and ponderous subject, it is a very lively production. It is, in short, a system of Domestic Management displayed on the favourite frame-work of a Novel. The idea is ingenious, and the execution amusing. At the celebrated Inn of St. Ronan's, a variety of well-known characters congregate, and institute a course of culinary experiments, the result of which is detailed in receipts arranged into chapters in a very luminous way, and given in language more exact than has usually been devoted to the processes of the kitchen. Among the dramatis persone of the Cliekum, besides Meg herself, we have the celebrated gourmand, Dr Redgill, Nabob Touchwood, Captain Jeykl of the Guards, and other subordinate characters. The opposition of national and individual tastes naturally produces a good deal of discus

sion, in the course of which, besides the exact receipts, the whole arcana of the kitchen are laid open, not more for our amusement than instruction. The first part of this comprehensive volume is occupied with an account of the organization of the club and its objects, something in the style of the Scotch novels; then follow the culinary lectures of the Nabob, which we would wish to see more extended; and last comes the great body of receipts, illustrated throughout by curious notes and ob servations, which, besides enlivening the text, contain a great deal of useful information, such as is likely to be picked up by a person of various reading. A novel feature of this Manual is National Dishes, in which those of Scotland are certainly not forgotten. The author is also very original on Curries; and the chapters on Soups and Sauces are peculiarly rich and piquant. Though the work betrays a spirit of innovation in certain departments of the science, into which a regular professor would never have adventured, and a manly preference for simple and rational Cookery, in opposition to fantastic and elaborate compounds, there is a preponderance of ornamental dishes, and the mere elegancies of the table, which would have found no place in Dr Johnson's beau ideal of a philosophical Cookery-book. There are, for instance, a variety of cakes which might puzzle the Vicar of Wakefield's wife, and, along with some sensible observations on fermentation, and the ordering and managing of liquors, which are much above the usual mark of receipt-books, a great deal more about Cordials and Home-made Wines than those

wishy-washy preparations deserve. We submit, however, that these are merely masculine fallible objections: to the ladies, the ornamental, cosmetic, and cordial department, may prove the most highly-edifying portion of this amusing volume.

We think we may give some idea of the serious spirit in which this work is composed by the author's devils, and definition of what a good sauce ought to be, and what it is so seldom found; for his avowed simplicity of taste is quite reconcilable with the most refined gourmand propensities, which, according to him, are radically opposed to all incoherent mixtures.

says

"It is the duty of a good sauce," the most recondite of modern gastrologers, the editor of the Almanach des Gourmands," to insinuate itself all round the maxillary glands, and call into activity each ramification of the palatic organs. If it be not relishing, it is incapable of producing this effect; and if too piquante, it will deaden instead of exciting those titillations of tongue and vibrations of palate, which can only be produced by the most accomplished philosophers of the mouth on the well-trained palate of the refined gourmet." This, we think, is a tolerably correct definition of what a well-compounded sauce ought to be.

The French, among our other insular distinctions, speak of us as a nation "with twenty religions and only one sauce,"-parsley and butter, by the way, is this national relish,—and unquestiona bly English cookery, like English manners, has ever been much simpler than that of their neighbours. Modern cookery too, like modern dress, is stripped of many of its original tag-rag fripperies. We have laid aside lace and embroidery save upon occasions of high ceremonial, and, at the same time, all omne-gatherum compound sauces and ragouts with a smack of every thing. Yet the human form and the human palate have gained by this revolution. The harmonies of flavour, the affinities and coherence of tastes, and the art of blending and of op. posing relishes, were never so well understood as now; and the modern kitchen still affords, in sufficient variety, the sharp, the pungent, the sweet, the acid, the spicy, the aromatic, and the nutty flavours, of which to compound mild, saYoury, or piquant sauces, though a host of ingredients are laid aside.

The elegance of a table, as opposed to mere lumbering sumptuousness or vulgar

To cure Butter in the best Manner.

Having beat the butter entirely free of butter-milk, work it quickly up, allowing a scanty half-ounce of pounded salt to the pound. Let the butter lie for twenty-four hours, or more, and then, for every pound, allow an ounce of the following mixture :-Take four ounces of salt, two of loaf-sugar, and a half-ounce of saltpetre. Beat them all well toge ther, and having worked up the butter very well, pack it for use in jars or kits.

Obs. We confidently recommend this method of twice salting butter, which only requires to be known to come into general use. It effectually preserves the butter, without so much salt being employed as to give it a rank and disagreeable taste. Summer-butter requires a little more salt than what is cured in autumn; but the above proportions are used in some of the best-managed dairies in Scotland. Instead of strewing a layer of salt on the top, which makes a part of the butter useless for the table, place a layer of the above mixture in thin folds of muslin, stitch it loosely, and lay this nearly over the jar, which will effectually exclude the air. The turnip-flavour is a general complaint against butter made in winter and spring. Many experiments have been made, but we fear it is not possible wholly to remove this offensive taste. It may, however, be much ameliorated by mixing nitre, dissolved in water, with the milk, in the proportions of an ounce of nitre to ten gallons of milk. To give the cattle a little straw previous to their feed of turnip is a method employed in some places for preventing the turnip-flavour.

Of making Cheese.-Many parts of our island, from the delicate quality of the natural pastures, ought to furnish the very best cheese. We can indeed perceive no good reason why the cheese of Scotland and Wales should not equal that of Switzerland and Lombardy. Considerable improvements have indeed been made in this tardy branch of our rural economy; but, notwithstanding the zeal

wives, who make this branch of economy their particular study, will find many observations worthy of their attention in Arthur Young's Tour in France and Italy, and in the Papers of the Bath So ciety, and the Highland Society of Scot. land.

with which the Highland Society has lately taken up this subject, the range of improvement is still limited. Though one occasionally sees very excellent cheese in private families, little that is good comes to market, except the Ayrshire cheese, and it is not, after all, a very delicate cheese for the table. The low price that cheese gives in those remote parts of the country where the milk most resembles that from which the Swiss and Parmesan

cheese is made, makes the farmer's wife still consider all the sweet milk that goes to her cheese as so much butter lost. But skim-milk cheese never can be fine. At least one-half of the milk used should be fresh from the cow. Another capital defect is making the milk too hot, and then employing too much rennet, which makes the curd tough and hard, however rich its basis may be. The more gently the curd is separated from the whey, the milder will the cheese be. Made in a cylindrical form, it will eat more mellow than if moulded in a broad flat shape. Particular attention must be given to the cheese in the winding. The wrapping cloths must be changed very frequently, that the cheese may dry equally. The salting is also of importance; and, in preference to either salting the curd or the new cheeses, we would recommend their being steeped in pickle. A sort of cheese for the table, of very high goût, an almost Tartarian preparation, is made in the north by allowing the milk to become rancid, and to coagulate of itself, which gives a flavour even more pungent than that of goat's-milk cheese. Cheese should be kept in a cool and rather damp place, wrapped in a damp cloth, and placed in a covered jar. It should always be presented at table wrapped in a small damask napkin, from economy as well as neatness. The surface of cheese, particularly a cut cheese, when to be kept, should be rubbed with butter or lard. Dried pieces, when they cannot be presented at table, may either be grated down, to eat as a homely kind of Parmesan, or used in macaroni. The offensive mould which gathers on cheese may easily be distinguished from "the blue," the genuine ærugo, which stamps

Those delicious and romantic compositions, Hot-spiced Wines, we find thus learnedly celebrated in one of the notes:

Hot Spiced Wines.-A variety of these delicious potations were in use so late as the beginning of the sixteenth century. The old metrical romances are full of allusions to these favourite com pounds, and particularly to the hyppocras, suck, and clary. The first of these, which took its name from the bag through which it was strained being called "Hip. pocrates' sleeve," was made of either white or red wine with aromatics, such as ginger, cinnamon, and aromatic seeds with sugar. Clary was made from claret, with honey and aromatics, and sack These from the wine of that name. medicated liquors were used as a composing draught or "night-cap," and also drunk at the conclusion of a banquet. "Of these spiced wines," says Le Grand, in his vie privée des François, our poets of the thirteenth century never speak without rapture, and as an exqui site luxury. They consider it the mas terpiece of art to combine in one liquor the strength and flavour of wine, with the sweetness of the honey, and the perfume of the most costly aromatics. A banquet at which no piment was served would have been thought wanting in the most essential article." The only kind of these delicious beverages still in use, besides our common mulled wine, is Bishop, a bewitching mixture inade of Burgundy and spices, with sugar.

66

When the compound is made of Bour. deaux wine, it is still called simply Bishop; but, according to a German amateur, it receives the name of Cardinal when old Rhine wine is used; and even rises to the dignity of Pope when imperial Tokay is employed.

To the anecdotes, squabbles, and

off. The production of mites may be checked by pouring spirits on the affected parts. The addition of butter to the curd, or of lard rubbed into the new cheeses, is employed to enrich the quality and mellow the cheese. Chopped sage, caraway-seeds, &c. are employed to flavour cheese, and various substances are used to heighten the colour. Of these saffron is the most inoffensive. House

Ronan's, we have not space to advert; and as we have, from inspection, found good reason to believe that the practical utility of the work has not suffered in any respect from the attempt to make the subject of Domestic Economy more attractive to the young housekeeper, and the "lover of light reading," we may