Weekly national intelligencer., 1854-02-04
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.
SALAD FOR THE SOLITARY, BY AN EPIcURE. New
York: Lamport Backman Law. 1898.

1
York: Lamport, Blackman Law. 1858
1t is rather too late in the day, perhaps, to make
notes 7" on book which every body has at least
dipped into If not read through from beginning to
end It is nv Lord Bacon who has said that some
hooks ore to be tasted, Others to be swallowed, and
some few to be chewed and digested that is, some
books are to be read only in parts others to be read
but not curously, and some few to be read wholly
and with diligence and attention. In the "Salad
for the Solitary" we have "herbaceous treat"
carnered from the fertile fields of literature by an
. epicure " of evident good taste; and, if we may
Judge of others by ourselves we should say that the
book is to be classed in the second of the Baconan
catecories above mentioned-a book to be swallowed
without much preliminary mastication. ..-
| We cannot precisely understand why our herbal
epicure should dress his salad for the "solita-
ry' unless perhaps it was for the sake of the at-
eratve jingle in the title. Solitaries, so far We
know, do not particularly affect the salad bowl on
the contrary, if there is any truth in the Spanish
proverb which insists that four persons are indis
pensabe to the production Of good salad spend
thrift for OIL mser for vinegar counsellor for salt,
and madman to stir it oil up-then we should infer
that between solitude and salad there is pre-es!ab
shed harmony that would have commended itself to the
perception even Of LeibntI.
This book is indeed what it purports to be,
"a deectabe conglomerate suitable to all and
all of peoples salmagundi of meats and vegetable
acids and sweets, oils and condiments such as
'''Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat"
The gatherer Of these condiments is evidently man
who he's gone through the whole realm Of literature nib
bling at its dbits and slipping off its rich Alderney
The book before is the bowl in which he has
preserved the most delicious Of these literary morceaus
for the rejection Of langud paatesa into which he
has decantsd Ia crime 3 Ia CRIME Of his reading and
polite learning single glance at the ingredients which
enter into the composition of epicures Salad quite
enough to make the readers mouth water in avid antici
patton of the good things to come. We have here
worry meange compounded follows, according to the
Table of Contentsthe Bill Of Fare we should say Diet
etos The Talkatve and the Taciturn Facts and Fan
ses about Flowers Monologue on Matrimony; Curl
and Costly Books Something about Nothing Pas.
times and Sports Dying Words of Distinguished Men;
The Poetry of Plants lnfelices of the Inteectua Ci
tatiens from the Cemeteries The Shrines Of Genius The
Selfish and the Social Pleasures Of the Pen Sleep and
its Mysteries
If amid this variety the reader cannot find something
his liking, it be because his taste is asdious
fault We do not propose at present to pass in review
each of these chapters under the various heads above
named; but there entertainments in which it is
expected at least permitted that each guest should
contribute his quota to the common board, trust
"Epcure will pardon US if venture to up
along with his elegant banquet little hash of own
stewng. -..
Under the head of Dietetics" Epcure discusses
the opinion of those who have alleged that man par
takes Of the nature of the animal of which he eats.
From this statement he disposed dissent his expe-
rience having shown him, doubt not, that though
may possess prevailing pencan for mutton does
not seem to follow that he acquires in consequence
sheepsh expression, any than that he who nduges
preference for bacon should evnce hoggish dspos-
tor. We remember to have read long dissertation by
that eccentric Teuton Herr Feueback in which he takes
for his theme the affirmative Of that proposition which
author is inclined to renege and after long process
Of subtle augmentation arrives the conclusion that
man what he eats" We not ourselves quite pre-
pared to give in adhesion to the ratiocinaon of the
erratc German yet might for the nonce, suppose
the hypothesis to be founded in fact would it not enable
to account phosophicaly and satisfactorily for
many social phenomena that have hitherto puzzled the
wits alike of moralists and historians? If be true
!" that is what he eats' should longer feel
constrained to wonder at the yerdancy of Grahames and
vegearians should be surprised at any corrup
on of morals in Ireland, as being naturally consequent
OF the potato rot The ancients sure, fully be-
lieved the truth Of Feuerbacks proposition for read
that Chiron the cenaur who the first botnst Of his
age and who entrusted with the education of men
like Achilles Hercules JASON Peleus Eneas and others
of such k won't to feed his pupils with the
of wild beasts fact which the old writer's aege quite
enough for the fierce and sangunary valor
they eynced in their subsequent fe If there had been
any virtue in herbs that Chiron would have
known it, seeing that "he taught mankind the of
plants"
An ingenious English writer Of modern times whose
present escapes has very gravey argued that
all matter possesses inherent sedynamic power,
cennatura spirit Of life which generates by its evolution
all the motion and vitality in the universe This
inherent seHdynamic force is that which gives life to
vegetables the absorption of which in the animal frame
develops still higher elfdynamc energy. If it were
to consider curiousy consider so, should
like trace this hypothesis few Of its practical app
cations; for instance should like to know how it is
that certain combination Of beer saurkraut and salads
makes German soHpe m1iyre rR ordindtre, and frogs
legs Frenchman roast beef and plum pudding Bri
fisher rice and birds nests Chinaman seals and fish,
oil Greenlander IT, according the idea of the French
naturalist and philosopher Cabanis, the human brain
secretes though. and emotion in the way the
ears wax or the liver bile would it not be interest
ing process the quo odo by which beer and cab
bage evolved in the guse of German metaphysics
how light wine aud rcasee enter into the production Of
French gaiety how roast beef and plum pudding the
necessary pabuum for English craftsmanship, and so
forth: But regret that ingenious author
rious inquiry.