XALTED themes demand a lofty strain,"

therefore we may be forgiven if we

call up one of the mightiest spirits ever laid to rest, and invoke the shade of St. Paul to declare whether, as he passed through the streets of stately Athens, and found that altar which the god-loving souls of the Athenians (fearing some occult power might be yet unpropitiated by fitting sacrifices) had raised to the “Unknown God," to say if, amid all those shrines made glorious by art and costly with the wealth of genius, he found one, among the thousands there, inscribed to the God of Cookery.

Alas! the great Apostle is sorrowfully silent; and, we, finding in the records of "haughty Greece and insolent Rome," only the chronicle of luxury without elegance, and profusion without delicacy, must conclude that the Unknown God of whom the world was not yet worthy) must have been that mysterious deity long worshipped by the Gauls, and now the latest and most popular divinity of the English Pantheon. Philosopher after philosopher has been telling us that England (and indeed all Europe) has been seeking vaguely she knows not what, and, deceived by the cry of “ Progress,” working blindly for an unknown. After being now plunged in uneasy slumbers for centuries, and now making breathless endeavour, the long struggle of the nations and the conflict of the peoples is ending in the dawn of the new era. Desolating wars and French revolutions are but the birth-throes which precede the advent of the AllHealer, the All-Beneficent, who at last has come to send grace, through good cookery, upon the earth.

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Most meedful were it to trace how and where the dim idea of this deity first revealed itself to the heart of man.

Too far, however, would it lead us afield; back to the time when yet no glimmer of fire had been seen on earth, and the long-haired savage flung his stone weapon after the animal which was to form his single meal, presided over by no other god than the oldest of all-Fames.

Most gratefully too would we sing the first seer who, if he did not lift the veil from the face, first found the divinity behind it. Mighty must he have been who enunciated the laws of the hidden power to the chosen few, fitted by nature and gifts for appreciating its mysteries. Greatest of all was he, who first proclaimed to all men what sacrifices were pleasing to the goddess and the happiness found in offering them.

It is idle, however, to task our feeble power with labours which are meet for sages, and with themes which will yet inspire the song of great bards. Another Homer will yet sing how this goddess helped Buckmaster in the fight with the modern enemies of the "children of light," and another Virgil will yet celebrate the groves of Kensington in which the new laws were taught to the chosen prophets. Let us not even enquire how the knowledge first came to this land, "set in the silver sea,” but limit ourselves to the easy task of recording how the culte of this latest known divinity is spreading here.

Some prophetic-souled seer has raised in the Forum of our million-peopled city, a great temple devoted to the service of the culinary deity. There under a High Priest numbers of a vowed order of sisters (a kind of vestal virgins, engaged ever with the sacred fire) are instructod in all the mysteries of the worship, and the secrets of the preparation of acceptable sacrifices. These, once skilled, will go forth to spread their knowledge and kindle the pure flame of the new worship upon thousands of household altars which have hitherto been sacred to Crispara and covered with the foul offerings demanded by a deity so malignant and so cruel to her adorers.

The council which presides over the education of the masses of our great city has been fired by the recital of the incalculable advantages which a rightly directed worship will bring to the people and the realm at large, and has decreed in its wisdom that in all its schools altars shall be raised to the culinary god, and the sacred mysteries taught. As this is a household worship, and few special fanes are reared, and in comparatively few cases are men engaged in its service, the females of the family are devoted to the graceful task of preparing offerings which are after partaken of by all. So, those who have to train the mothers of our next generation are required to be able to teach the principles and doctrines, and to instruct in the intelligent preparation of the complicated sacrifices. Some of the vestals who have passed through their novitiate are now employed in gradually inducting large numbers of neophytes into fuller knowledge and clearer light.

Let us enter one of the rooms set apart for the teaching of those who will teach in their turn. It is only a small room of the ordinary square, bare look, common to all schoolrooms, and is slightly modified for its present purpose by the introduction of a large tablelike stand nearly the length of the room, and situated at the further end. Behind it is a curious closed stove; variously shaped vessels are ranged on shelves, closed by doors. In front is a row of chairs for those who are to take an active part, and behind rows of seats rise amphitheatre-wise to the wall at the back. Beside the stove a wide arch shows the entrance into a lower apartment, where an inferior attendant performs various menial and cleansing offices. The presiding priestess stands behind the table, upon which, and in front of her, burns the ever-present fire, shining in various jets from a curiously-wrought flat stove placed upon the table. In front of her are placed the four novices, arranged like her in white linen garb from foot to wrist;

these are chosen out of the devotees grouped on the seats, to assist in the rites.

The Archimagira commences by expounding some principle, and enumerates the varying modes of preparing the fruits of the earth (in its widest sense) according to circumstances. Then this is shown visibly : then come the novices, and perform their part. They imitate, as far as possible, the movements of their chief, and following her instructions, assist in the rites. One washes and cuts into tiny fragments the vivid parsley, another sets free the imprisoned gold of the egg, and mixing it with milk and flour, kneads the sacred cake. Another prepares the flesh of sheep or lamb, and pours over it the appropriate libation, and yet another browns over the flame, in a flat metal dish, the mysterious sausage.

The others look on, storing up details to serve the time when they shall preside in their turn, or consulting the sacred books already in use among the faithful. Any one perplexed on points of faith or practice is invited to speak freely, and have any doubts set at rest by the fair pythoness, who always clenches her dictum by a reference to the Pontiff (who is infallible), or by a quotation from the books written by a sage, high in office, and vowed to the worship. When the rites are nearly over, and the fire has done its work, a delicious odour, most grateful to gods and men, rises, announcing the completion of the sacrifice, and the approval of the deity. The various preparations are then divided into portions, and carried by the novices to the other devotees all solemnly partake of them in a kind of Agape. The meeting then breaks up, each carrying with her some new idea over which to brood in the ensuing week, and which may be the humble seed from which, by the fostering care of the deity, may spring the gorgeous flower and precious fruit of a new discovery in cooking.

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And what will be the result of this new movement, and the fervent culture of the new idea? Does it not point to a glorious future when cooking, the highest and most scientific, shall prevail among all, as universally as now reigns the vilest and worst? When cooks shall wear the apron or cap as proudly as the soldier his epaulets and scarlet, and the knife in the girdle shall be more honourable than the sword? When peace

shall shed her influence over the whole earth, and the gentle teaching of the priestesses shall soften man, until envy, hatred, and the dark clouds of evil, shall, in the golden days coming, be lost in the clear shining of the sun which shall spread only sweetness with its light?

Therefore, O maidens ! rejoice at the glorious destiny before you, anticipating the peaceful triumphs you shall win, the obdurate hearts that will soften and be humanized, nay, raised to the god-like, by the benign influence of the exquisite dishes you, by the special help of your divinity, shall prepare. Entreat the goddess to be yet more gracious to her chosen, to inspire them to attempt yet more daring combinations, and to evolve yet more exquisite flavours than have yet been dreamed of, even if she will not condescend to your human weakness and deign to invent a new animal. O men! thankfully praise the days in which your lots have fallen, and thank the L. S. B. for the pleasant places your cooks make of your kitchens; and ages and ages hence, some Darwin of the future will discover that from this beginning was evolved man's supreme power of dining more than once a day.