Of military science; for all these
Were but preliminaries accessory
To the preeminent, god-like art of cooking.
B. I think you mean to choke me, my good friend.
A. Not I; but till the boy comes back from market
I'll stir you up a little with some rules
About your art, since we can never have
A more convenient time for talking of it.
B. Oh, by Apollo, you're a zealous man.
A. Listen, my friend. In the first place, a cook
Must the sublimer sciences have learnt:
He must know when the stars do set and rise,
And why. Moreover, when the sun returns,
Causing the long and short days on the earth;
And in what figures of the zodiac
He is from time to time. For, men do say
All fish, and every meat and herb we eat,
Have different qualities at different seasons
Of the revolving year; and he who knows
The principles and reasons of these things
Will use each meat when it is most in season;
And he who knows them not, but acts at random,
Is always laugh'd at most deservedly.
Perhaps, too, you don't know wherein the science
Of th' architect can bear on this our art.
B. Indeed I wonder'd what it had to do with it.
A. I'll tell you:—rightly to arrange the kitchen,
To let in just the light that's requisite,
To know the quarter whence the winds blow most,
Are all of great importance in this business—
For smoke, according to which way it goes,
Makes a great difference when you dress a dinner.
B. That may be; but what need is there, I pray,
For cooks to have the science of generals?
A. Order is a prevailing principle
In every art; and most of all in ours:
For to serve up and take away each dish
In regular order, and to know the time
When quick t' advance them, and when slowly bring,
And how each guest may feel towards the supper,
And when hot dishes should be set before him,
When warm ones, and when regular cold meat
Should be served up, depends on various branches
Of strategetic knowledge, like a general's.
B. Since then you've shown me what I wish'd to know,
May you, departing now, enjoy yourself.
23. And the cook in the Milesians of Alexis is not very different from this, for he speaks as follows—
A. Do you not know, that in most arts and trades
'Tis not th' artificer who alone has pow'r
