A revolution like the French, which presented to their eyes such
terrible spectacles, must have left some traces in their physical or
intellectual constitution. At the end of this bloody drama, the mind,
bewildered by the late dreadful scenes, was unable to feel those sweet
and peaceable emotions, in which it had formerly delighted; as the
palate, having long been at rest, and now become blunted, must require
high-seasoned dishes, to excite an appetite. The reign of the Directory,
therefore is that of Romances à la Radcliffe, as well as of Sauces à la
Provençale. Fortunately, the eighth of Brumaire pulled down the five
Directors, together with their saucepans.

Under the Consulship, and during the empire, the art of cooking, thanks
to the labours of Beauvilliers, Balaine, and other artists, made new and
remarkable improvements. Among the promoters of the gastric science, the
name of a simple amateur makes a distinguished figure--it is Grisnod
de la Reynière, whose almanac the late Duke of York called the most
delightful book that ever issued from the press. We may affirm, that the
_Almanach des Gourmands_ made a complete revolution in the language and
usages of the country.

We are yet too near the restoration to determine the degree of influence
it had on cookery in France. The restoration has introduced into
monarchy the representative forms friendly to epicurism, and in this
respect it is a true blessing--a new era opened _to those_ who are
hungry.

M. Jarrin's fourth edition contains upwards of 500 receipts in Italian
confectionery, with plates of improvements, &c. like a cyclopaedian
treatise on mechanics; and when our readers know there are "seven
essential degrees of boiling sugar," they will pardon the details of the