plain cooking and learn the art of cookery, you will be virtuous, for there is no such imp as one born of dyspepsia, born of plain cooking, grandchild of Satan himself, who sends the cooking, not the cooks, for his own evil purposes.

The pleasures of the table mean the pleasure of conversation as well as that of eating. Silence at the dinner, when not taken alone, means feeding, not dining. It has been said that only man dines, that the brutes feed. We fear that man flatters himself too much by so sweeping an assertion. The best test of refinement at table is that of whether the meeting seems to be for the purpose of eating or for that of social intercourse. If the eating seems to be but incidental to the intercourse, the test is completely stood.

The pleasures of the table contribute directly and indirectly to beauty, directly, by the consumption of appetizing food, and indirectly, by surroundings that promote easy digestion. To suppose that it matters not what one eats, so that the appetite is satisfied, shows want of common observation. The kind of food eaten largely affects the organization of every animal, including man. The habitual use of certain coarse foods becomes at once apparent through their effect on the skin. The lower animals that are eaten evidence in their appearance the influence of different kinds of food, and that influence, even to the different flavor of the flesh which different kinds of food impart.

It would be a mistake for any one to suppose, from what we have said in recommendation of variety in food, that it is to be construed as advocating great variety at any one meal. On the contrary, except on certain occasions, as at dinner-parties, where one may remain seated for hours, great variety is not desirable. For every-day life the most delectable variety is the variety of well-regulated sequence. Were we able to have on our table daily all the various products the market affords, it would be a

mistake to have them. Viands that are constantly seen and tasted pall upon the taste. A little air of strangeness makes us return to things with renewed avidity. Hotels are under a certain compulsion to furnish everything in the market simultaneously, because they entertain so many guests of different tastes. But one of the consequences of attempting to prepare so many dishes is that all of them are not well prepared. So, for the management of the private table there is a double reason for not having a great variety at any one meal, that the dishes which do appear, being limited in number, can all be made choice, and because the absent friends will soon bring with them renewed zest at their appearance.

The fact is that variety coming in the guise of a surprise is an immense fillip to the pleasure of eating and the ease of digestion. It may be that the new dish is nothing but an old acquaintance from which we parted not long since, but it is none the less welcome if it has come opportunely and does not stay too long. This introduces a phase of the table in which we have the profoundest sympathy with women. The mistress of the house generally knows exactly what is coming. No pleasant surprises in this regard are in store for her. The master of the house, on the contrary, is always being favored with them. This is one of the reasons why the majority of women so thoroughly enjoy any little treat in the way of eating in which they have had nothing whatever to do with the preparation. Not being able to see a way for them out of their difficulty, we can but extend to them our heartfelt sympathy, congratulate ourselves upon our more favored estate, and avail ourselves of every opportunity to make amends to them by affording them the pleasure which, like ourselves, they so heartily enjoy.

OUR

CHAPTER XXXII.

CLOTHING IN ITS RELATION TO HEALTH.

UR province is not to speak more than incidentally, as we have already availed ourselves of the opportunity of doing, of clothing from the point of view of dress. It is simplyto speak of clothing as a protective, healthful, and agreeable covering of the body.

To enable us to exercise, in the particulars mentioned, sound judgment with reference to the choice of clothing for different purposes, we should know certain fundamental facts regarding the behavior of the ordinary substances that, as fibres, are converted into clothing. This knowledge, coupled with apprecia tion of the fact that clothes do not, of themselves, make warmth or coolness, but are serviceable in cold weather to retain the heat that the body generates, and in hot weather to exclude the greater exterior as compared with the interior temperature, is sufficient, with one addition, to enable any one to understand the philosophy of clothing. That addition is, that it should be remembered that at all times the body transpires, or gives off moisture through its pores, and that this circumstance cannot be ignored in the selection of the material out of which the clothing is made.

As it is the heat of the body which is to be preserved, if we wish to be warm, or the excessive outside heat which is to be excluded, if we wish to be cool, the best fabric for both purposes must be that which is made of some substance that is relatively non-conducting to heat. Additionally, although we wish to retain or to exclude heat, the mesh of the fabric must always be adapted to allowing to pass through it the evaporation of the moisture from the skin. Hence, a suit of leather, such as knights

used to wear under their armor, must have been unhealthy. It was good as a non-conductor of heat, and had a certain degree of porosity, but not sufficient to make desirable clothing for the whole person..

Linen is not a good fabric for underwear, even in a hot climate, because linen is a good conductor of heat, presenting conditions just the opposite of those that are best suited for the purposes of clothing, those which are secured by materials that are bad conductors. Linen, besides, readily absorbs the moisture of the body, which circumstance still further promotes the loss of bodily heat in a cold climate, or, in a warm climate, facilitates the passage inward of the excessive outside heat. This objectionableness of linen for underclothing, inherent in the physical constitution of the substance itself, we can obviate, when desirable, by wearing a garment under the linen composed of a material that is a bad conductor; but then, it will be observed, the linen has ceased to be an undergarment. With nothing but a single thickness of linen next the skin, a sudden drop of the outside temperature will cause a chill to strike to the very marrow. This is because the heat of the body passes readily through the slight opposition of the fabric, so good is it as a conductor of heat. We once tried to wear linen shirts in very hot weather, but found them, in alternations of temperature, far from agreeable.

On the contrary, nothing is more delightful for hot weather than are linen sheets. Here, the quality of linen in being a good conductor of heat serves well the heat-oppressed sleeper, conducting, as it does, the heat so rapidly from the surface of the body as to make radiation back to it inappreciable. Besides, the fibre of linen is round and smooth, rendering fabrics made of it singularly agreeable to the touch when coolness is desirable. An analogous though opposite gratification to that afforded from touching or seeing good blankets in the

winter-time is experienced from seeing and feeling linen sheets in the summer.

Taking it for all in all, wool is the best fabric for wear next the skin. But this cannot be said without the qualification that much depends upon the quality of the wool. We have a lively recollection of a terribly cold walk that we once took, with snow on the ground, through the open country, when, coming to a wayside store, it occurred to us to buy a pair of long, coarse, woolen stockings for protection from the severe cold. Such was the exacerbation to the skin from the rude material of the stockings, that by nightfall our legs were covered from ankle to knee with a profuse eruption, which subsided at once as soon as the active cause of the irritation was removed.

In heat-retaining and excluding merits, the common materials for clothing rank as follows,-woolen, cotton, silk. We have said sufficient on the score of linen. For outside garments, whether for men or women, it is admirable for hot weather. It is much used for dresses by men and women of tropical climates, the fine-linen market of Cuba being one of the best in the world.

Cotton is the most generally agreeable wear for undergarments, if not in immediate contact with the skin; at least, next to the garment which is in immediate contact with it. Our own opinion is that no climate is so hot that the health is not the better for wearing a woolen garment next to the skin. This, in tropical countries, should, of course, be of the texture that is known as gauze-merino. Cotton does not absorb moisture so readily as linen does, and, after all that we have said, it is hardly needful to remark that it is much warmer than linen. For socks or stockings it has, under certain conditions of their use, singular unfitness. To become footsore on a long pedestrian tour, one could not devise a better plan than to use cotton socks or stockings. That very peculiarity of the substance of which we just spoke, that it does not absorb moisture so readily as linen does,