The particular judgments of the different kinds of meat and vegetables are mostly taken from the old physicians, and are hardly worth quoting. W. B. approves of the flesh of kids, as among the best of all meat, but he condemns lamb, and even disapproves of beef, though he thinks veal is "exceeding good and commendable.” In fact, perhaps guided by the fashion of his age, he seems to be prejudiced against all the coarser meats, and to prefer those which are finer and more delicate. "Hog's flesh," he says, "is more naturall to the constitution of man then many other creatures." Passing over his judgment of poultry, we will observe that he appears to have a decided partiality for eggs, of which he tells us that "the egges of hennes and partridges are better than any other," and that "after those the duck-egge taketh place." One advantage of egges, he tells us, is that, as the whole eatable part is contained in a hard shell, they receive no disparagement from the dirtyness of the cook : "An egge you well may take, and cracke, or cut, Or thus: An egge, an apple, and a nut, May be eaten with a slut." We shall not follow W. B. through his various observations of the different kinds of fish, vegetables, and fruits. The list of the latter is a numerous one. Of saffron, an article now almost forgotten, we are told that "it being put into a cup of wine, and drunken therein, much exhilerateth the heart and cheareth the countenance." And with regard to another class of vegetable productions, he produces the following pithy but not over-elegant lines:- "If leekes you like, but doe their smell disleeke, Eat onyons, and you shall not smell the lecke: If you of onyons would the scent expell, Eat garlicke, that shall drowne the onions smell: But against garlicks savour, at a word, I know but one receit, and that's... The second book consists of remarks, taken almost entirely from the writings of the ancients, on the different orders and conditions "of those that may accompany us at our tables;" and as there are few of us who are often honoured with the presences of" Emperours," "Kings," "Princes," or even of " the Bishops of the Gentiles," we will pass over these chapters without further remark than that, under the head of "Physicians," we are favoured with the following couplet : "Who takes his meales by physicall direction, Shall lose his health as well as his complexion." We come now to the third book, which relates to conversation at table, and furnishes us with philosophical and other themes of discussion, with knotty questions, and even with riddles, for afterdinner occupation. Thus, to begin with the commencement, we have a fair number of questions, discussed pro and con, such as, "Whether ayre be more necessary to life than meat,”- "Whether evill meat or evill ayre hurt the body more," "Whether wee may walke or sleepe presently after meat,"-"Why wee can containe hotter meats in our mouthes than wee can hold in our hands," "Why those of moyst stomackes desire little yet are capable of much drinke." The following is the answer to this last question : : "Next is demanded, why the moyst stomacke, though it little desire, yet is capable of much drinke ? To the which is answered, that by reason of the humour and moysture it hath, it is stretched like unto the belly, and therefore is of larger capacity than otherwayes the dry and therefore the Scythians, English, Dutch, Polanders, and Danes drinke much by reason of the moisture of their stomackes, and the capacity thereof: whereas in Spaine and other hot countreyes, contrariwise they drinke often, but little, by reason of the heat of their stomackes, which through much drynesse is hardened, and of little receit." After a score of questions of this kind, we have various other subjects connected with diet discussed more or less briefly, and among the rest, a question which seems to have been much debated among the physicians at that time, namely, whether it were not good to get drunk with wine once a month ?— "First, it is demanded whether, according to Avicen in his Canticles, and Rasis likewise, it be physicall to be drunke with wine once a month? To the which is answered, with the commenter upon the Canticles, that their opinion is erroneous which so affirme: for although wine, according to Galen, is the most agreeable to man's nature, in respect of the naturall heat and nearnesse it hath with our bloods, being in degree thereto, as oyle to the light or fire yet as much and superfluous oyle puts out the fire and light, so much wine our naturall heat; and as it is more agreeable to our natures being thinne and cleare, so notwithstanding, it is more hurtfull to the animall and sensible heat, and the organs thereof; that is, to the braine and sinewes : and therefore Galen concludeth, that water is better than wine, especially for those that have weake nerves.' There is another of these philosophical questions which we are tempted to quote: "Next is demanded why the eating of figges breedeth lice? To the which is answered, that although figges of themselves soone putrifie and corrupt, yet have they a property to present all inward corrupt humours they find in the body, to the uppermost part of the skinne; and out of such humors are lice ingendred, although otherwise sometimes by sweaty and unshifted linnen betweene the skinne and that alone, as the two parents without any other materials ingendred, to which effect one merrily jesteth upon a lousie shifter in this epigram, as followeth : "By want of shift since lice at first are bred, I cannot see why Crambo should have many, "Yet Avicen thus farre commendeth figges, that they cause a good colour in the face, by driving the blood to the outermost part of the skinne." The following is a scrap of superstition, which may perhaps amuse some of our readers : "There are likewise in the yeare three dangerous Mundayes to beginne any businesse, to fall sicke, or undertake any journey: viz. "The first Munday in Aprill, which day Cain was borne, and his brother Abel slaine. "Second Munday in August, which day Sodem and Gomorah were destroyed. "The last Munday of December, which day Judas was borne that betrayed Christ." To this we may add the following :— "Of the strange effects wrought by some members of the Owle. "Take the heart of an owle, and his right foot, and put it upon one that sleepeth, and he shall reveale unto thee whatsoever he hath done, or whatsoever he knowes, that thou shalt aske him, and this hath beene experienced of late time. Of the Want or the Mole. "The want or the mole is a creature of strange effect, as the philosopher conceives, who being put into the neast of any bird, can never bring forth her young; as also the water wherein she is decocted, being rubbed upon any thing, AA. that was blacke, immediately changeth it into white. "Of the strange effects of some parts of the Black-bird. "If the quils of her right wing be taken and hung up in a house by a red thred, no creature can sleepe in that house untill they are taken downe; and if the head thereof be put upon any one that sleepeth, they shall reveale unto thee all their secrets with a loud voyce, as hath beene experienced. "A way to make Doves increase and multiply. "Avicen saith, that Aristotle was of opinion, that if the milke of a woman twice married over, put into a vessell of glasse, and either buried or hung up in the dore where the pigions flye out and in, they would keepe together, and increase to infinite numbers. "To untye a knot without touching. "Goe into a wood, and find where a pye hath builded her nest, and hath young ones, and tye some string round about the hole where she goeth in; the which when she shall perceive, she immediately flyes for a certaine herbe which she puts to the knot, which presently breaketh it; then falleth the hearb downe, which thou mayst take up and reserve to such a purpose." The conversation at table could not be of a very intellectual character, when it was thought necessary, for improving it, to propose such questions as these: "Q. What body was that that had a portable sepulchre ? "A. Jonas in the whale's belly." "Q. What thing was that which was brought forth in the world, liv'd in the world, sinn'd not in the world, spake in the world, died in the world, and yet shall never bee partaker of the world to come? "A. Balaam's asse. Q. What is that, the more you take from it, the more it is increased, and the more you adde to it, the more it is diminished? “A. Many sticke hereat, and deny that any such thing can be, but wee finde it to be a hole in a cloth." "Q. Which of all Hercules labours was his hardest to overcome? "A. Love.' "Q. What is a thing very strange in these times ? “Ă. A closed hand and open justice." "Q. Why doe those that carrie burthens for the most part sing? "A. Because the sence being delighted with the mirth, is the lesse capable of her sorrow. Q. Where is it that no man is counted evill, but hee that doth no evill? "A. In the company of the wicked, theeves, robbers, and the like." Again, "Q. What is the most guilty part of time? "A. Opportunity: which if neglected, maketh the best thing unrespected, according to the Poet: "Like to a poore man so befriended Or summers chimneys, winter ended; "And for the guilt, another thus, "O Opportunity, thy guilt is great, 'Tis thou that executes the traytors treason, And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him, Thou blow'st the fire when temperance is thaw'd, But we have given quite enough of this book to show what a popular writer of the reigns of James I and Charles I considered as constituting the philosophy of the table in his days. It was evidently esteemed by his contemporaries, from the number of editions through which it passed; and it is now a curious little book, and one which is not of very common occurrence. ART. V.-Russia in the Time of Peter the Great. The Present State of Russia, in a Letter to a Friend at London; written by an eminent person residing at the Great Tzar's Court at Mosco for the space of nine years. London: Printed by John Winter, for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms in the Poultry, A.D. 1671. [8vo.] The State of Russia under the present Czar. In Relation to the several great and remarkable Things he has done, as to his Naval Preparations, the Regulating his Army, the Reforming his People, and Improvement of his Country By Captain John Perry, London. Printed for Benjamin Tooke, at the Middle Temple-Gate in Fleet-street, 1716. [8vo.] An Account of Russia as it was in the Year 1710. By Charles, Lord Whitworth. Printed at Strawberry Hill, M.DCC.LVIII. 8vo. The Present State of Russia. In Two Volumes. Being an Account of the ...... Government of that Country, both Civil and Ecclesiasticall; of the Czar's Forces by Sea and Land, the Regulation of his Finances, the several Methods he had made use of to civilize his People and improve the Country, his Transactions with several Eastern Princes, and what happened most remarkable at his Court, particularly in relation to the late Czarewitz, from the Year 1714 to 1720. The whole being the Journal of a Foreign Minister, who resided in Russia at that time. With a Description of |