1 have here done my utmost candidly to communicate, in as clear and intelligible a manner as I am able, that the most ignorant student in the occult art of cookery may comprehend and work from my receipts with the utmost facility: and thus they will soon acquire the enviable art of adorning the table with that splendid frugality which cannot fail to give every possible satisfaction.

The master who wishes to enjoy the rare luxury of a table regularly well served in the best style, must treat his cook as his friend, and watch over his health * with the tenderest care, and especially be sure his taste docs not suffer from his stomach being deranged by bilious attacks, etc.

The most experienced artists cannot be sure of their work without tasting; they must be incessantly tasting; and the spoon of a good cook is continually passing from the stewpans to his tongue; for nothing but frequent tasting his sauces, ragouts, etc, can discover to him what progress they the whole truth of the heretofore abstruse mysteries of the culinary art; herein, I hope, so plainly developed, have made, or enable him to season the soup with any certainty of success: his palate, therefore, must be in the highest state of excitability, that the least fault may be perceived by it.

* The greatest care should be taken by the man of fashion, that his cook's health be preserved: one hundredth part of the attention usually bestowed on his dog, or his horse, will suffice,to regulate his animal system. - A. C. Junr.

But, alas! the constant empyreumatic fumes of the stoves, the necessity of frequent drinking, and often of bad beer, to moisten a parched throat; in short, every thing around him conspires quickly to vitiate the organs of taste: the palate becomes blunted, its quickness of feeling and delicacy, on which the sensibility of the organs of taste depends, grows daily more obtuse, and in time becomes quite indurated, and the gustatory nerves unexcitable and unmoveable.

When you find your cook neglect his business, that his ragouts are too highly spiced or salted, and his cookery has too much of the "haut gout," you may be sure that his index of taste wants regulating, that his palate has lost its sensibility, and that it is time to call in the assistance of the apothecary, who will prepare him well, by two days' aqueous diet, and give him a purging potion, composed of manna, senna, and salts, regulating the dose according to the greater or less insensibility of his palate; give him a day's rest, and then purge him again; let him have two days' rest after his second dose of physic, and you may then hope to have at the head of your stoves a man altogether renovated.

This receipt, to ensure good cheer, is no joke, but the actual practice in those kitchens where the master is proud of the reputation of his table. All great cooks submit to the operation without a murmur; to prevent which, it should be made the first condition in hiring them. Those who refuse, prove they were not born to become masters of their art; and their indifference to fame will rank them, as they deserve, among those stupid slaves, who pass their lives in as much obscurity as their own stewpans.

I am well aware of the extreme difficulty of the task I have undertaken, in attempting to teach those who are entirely unacquainted with the subject, and to convey my ideas correctly by mere receipts to those who have had no opportunity of seeing the work performed; and in my anxiety to be readily understood, I have, perhaps, been under the necessity of occasionally repeating the same directions in different parts of the book: however, I chose rather to be censured for repetition, than for omission or obscurity.

To the preceding observations from the "Almanack des Gourmands" we may add, that the Mouthician will have a still better chance of success, if he can prevail on his master to obserte the same regime which he orders for his cook.

It has been customary to fill a certain number of pages with " proper rules to be observed in marketing," in knowing and buying poulterers', fishmongers', and butchers' ware, giving a true insight into the mystery of each; and, indeed, all the skill of the most accomplished cook will avail nothing, unless she is furnished with prime provisions. The best way to procure these is to deal with shops of established character: you may pay, perhaps, ten or fifteen per cent more than you would were you to deal with those who pretend to sell cheap, but you will be more than in proportion better served. Every trade has its tricks and deceptions, and those who follow them can deceive you if they please, and are too apt to do so if you provoke the exercise of their over-reaching talent, and challenge them to a game at "catch who can," by entirely relying on your own judgment: which nothing but very long experience can make equal to the combat of marketing to the utmost advantage. The best rule for marketing, is to pay ready money for every thing, and to deal with the most respectable tradesmen in your neighbourhood; and if you leave it to their integrity to supply you with a good article, at the fair market price, (I have, from my own experience, every reason to believe,) you will be supplied with better provisions, at as reasonable a rate, as those bargain hunters who trot around around around about a market, till they are trapped to buy some unchewable old poultry*, starved tough mutton, stringy beef, or stale fish, (at a little less than the price of prime and proper food:;) with these they toddle home in triumph, cackling all the way, like a goose that has got ankle deep into good luck.

* COURT OF REQUESTS, Tuesday, Nov. 5,1816.