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THE of saying grace at als had, probably, its in in the early tis of the world, and the huate of n, when dinners were precarious things, and a full al was re than a on blessing; when a belly-full was a windfall, and looked like a special proidence. In the shouts and triuhal songs with which, after a season of sharp abstinence, a lucky booty of deers oats flesh would naturally be ushered ho, eisted, perhaps, the gerof the ace. It is not otherwise easy to be uood, why the blessing of food -- the act of eating -- should hae had a particur epression of thanksgiing ao it, distinct frothat ilied and silent gratitude with which we are epected to enter upon the enjoynt of the ny other arious gifts and good things of eistence. I own that I adisposed to sa;bdo;/bdoy grace upoy other oasions in thurse of the day besides dinner. I want a forfor setting out upon a pleasant walk, for a onlight rale, for a friendly eting, or a soled proble Why hae we none for books, these spiritual repasts -- a grace before Mion -- a grace before Shakspeare -- a deotional eercise proper to be said before reading the Fairy Queen? -- but, the receied ritual haing prescribed these for to the solitary y of nducation, I shall fine obserations to the eperience which I hae had of the grace, properly so called; ending new sche for etension to a niche in the grand philosophical, poetical, and per part heretical, liturgy, now piling by friend Ho Hunus, for the use of a certain snug gregation of Utopian Rabeesian Christians, no tter where asseled.
The forthen of the beion before eating has its beauty at a poor ns table, or at the sile and unproocatie repasts of children. It is here that the race bees eceedingly graceful. The i n, who hardly knows whether he shall hae a al the day or not, sits down to his fare with a present sense of the blessing, whibsp; be but feebly acted by the rich, into whose nds the ception of wanting a dinneuld neer, but by so etre theory, hae ehe proper end of food -- the anil sustenance -- is barely pted by the The poor ns bread is his daily bread, literally his bread for the day. Theiurses are perennial.
Again, the pi diet see the fittest to be preceded by the grace. That which is least stitie to appetite, leaes the nd st free for fn siderations. A n y feel thankful, heartily thankful, oer a dish of pin tton with turnips, and hae leisure to reflect upon the ordinand institution of eating; when he shall fess a perturbation of nd, insistent with the purposes of the grace, at the presence of enison or turtle. When I hae sate (a rarus hospes) at ris tables, with the saoury soup and sses steang up the nostrils, and istening the lips of the guests with desire and a distracted choice, I hae fe the introdu of that y to be unseasonable. With the raenous asupon you, it see iertio interpose a religious se. It is a fusion of purpose to tter out praises froa uth that waters. The heats of epicurisput out the gentle f of deotion. The inse which rises round is pagan, and the belly-god intercepts it for his own. The ery ecess of the proision beyond the needs, takes away all sense of proportioween the end and ans. The gier is eiled by his gifts. You are startled at the injustice of returning thanks -- for what ? -- for haing too ch, while so ny stare. It is to praise the Gods ass.
I hae obsered this awkwardness fe, scarce sciously perhaps, by the good n who says the grace. I hae seen it in clergyn and others -- a sort of sha -- a sense of th-presence of circes whihallow the blessing. After a deotional to on for a few seds, hoidly the speaker will fall into his on oice, helping hielf or his neighbour, as if to get rid of so uneasy sensation of hypocrisy. Not that the good n ocrite, or was not st stious in the discharge of the duty; but he fe in his ;q.;/qinst nd the inpatibility of the se and the iands before hiwith the eercise of a d rational gratitude.
I hear sobody eci -- Would you hae Christians sit down at table, like hogs to their troughs, without reering the Gier? no -- I would hae thesit down as Christians, reering the Gier, and less like hogs. Or if their appetites st run riot, and they st paer theeles with delicacies for which east a are ransacked, I would hae thepostpoheir beion to a fitter season, when appetite is id; wheill sll oibsp; be heard, and the reason of the grace returns -- with teerate diet aricted dishes. Gluttony and surfeiting are no proper oasions for thanksgiing. When Jeshurun waed fat, we read that he kicked. Virgil khe harpy-nature better, whe into the uth of o any thing but a blessing. We y be gratefully sensible of the deliciousness of so kinds of food beyond others, though that is a aner and inferiratitude: but the proper object of the grace is sustenanot relishes; daily bread, not delicacies; the ans of life, and not the ans of paering the carcass. With what fra or posure, I wonder, a city chapin pronounce his beion at so great Hall feast, when he knows that his st cluding pious word -- and that, in all probability, the sacred na which he preaches -- is but the signal for so ny iatient harpies to eheir foul ies, with as little sense of true thankfulness (which is teerance) as those Virgilian fowl! It is well if the good n hielf does not feel his deotions a little cloude９９lｉb?d, those foggy sensuous stea ngling with and polluting the pure aar sacrifice.
The seerest satire upon full tables and surfeits is the ba which Satan, in the Paradise Regained, proides for a tetation in the wilderness:
A table richly spread in regal de,
With dishes piled, as of sort
And saour; beasts of chase, or fowl of ga,
In pastry bui, or frothe spit, or boiled,
Gris-aer-stead; all fish frosea or shore,
Freshet or purling brook, for which was drained
Pontus, and Lue bay, and Afriast.
The Teter, I warrant you, thought these cates would go down without the reendatory preface of a beion. They are like to he shraces where the deil pys the host. -- I aafraid the poet wants his usual de in this pce. Was he thinking of the old Ron luury, or of a gaudy day at Caridge? This was a tetation fitter for a Heliogabalus. The whole ba is too ciid ary, and the apas aogether a profanation of that deep, abstracted, holy se. The ghty artillery of sauces, which thok-fiend jures up, is out of proportion to the sile wants and pin hunger of the guest. He that disturbed hiin his drea, frohis drea ght hae been taught better. To the teerate fantasies of the fashed Son of God, what sort of feasts preseheeles ? -- He dread indeed,
-- As appetite is wont to drea
Of ats and drinks, natures refreshnt sweet.
But what ats? --
Hithought, he by the brook of Cherith stood,
And saw the raens with their horny beaks
Food to Elijah bringing, een and rn;
Though raenous, taught to abstain frowhat they brought:
He saw the prophet also how he fled
Into the desert, and how there he slept
Under a juhen how awaked
He found his supper on thals prepared,
And by the angel was bid rise a,
And ate the sed ti after repose,
The strength whereof sufficed hiforty days:
Sotis, that with Elijah he partook,
Or as a guest with Da his pulse.
Nothing in Mion is finelier fahaeerate drea of the diine Huo which of these two isionary bas, think you, would the introdu of what is called the grace hae been st fitting ai?
Theoretically I ano eo graces; but practically I own that (before at especially) they seeto ihing awkward and unseasonable. Our appetites, of one or another kind, are ecellent spurs to our reason, which ght otherwise but feebly set about the great ends of presering and tinuing the species. They are fit blessings to be pted at a distah a being gratitude; but the nt of appetite (the judicious reader will apprehend ) is, perhaps, the least fit season for that eercise. The Quakers who go about their business, of eery description, with re ess than we, hae re title to the use of these beory prefaces. I hae always adred their silent grace, and the re because I hae obsered their applications to the at and drink following to be less passionate and sensual than ours. They are her gluttons nor wine-bibbers as a people. They eat, as a horse bos his chopt hay, with indifference, ess, and ly circutahey her grease nor slop theeles. When I see a citizen in his bib and tucker, I agi a surplice.
I ano Quaker at food. I fess I anot indifferent to the kinds of it. Those unorsels of deers flesh were not de to be receied with dispassionate serices. I hate a n who swallows it, affeg not to know what he is eating. I suspect his taste in higher tters. I shrink instinctiely froone who professes to like nced eal. There is a physiognocal character iastes for food. C---- holds that a n ot hae a pure nd who refuses apple-dulings. I anot certain but he is right. With the dey first innoce, I fess a less and less relish daily for those innocuous cates. The whole egetable tribe hae lost their gust with . Only I stick to asparagus, which still see to inspire gehoughts. I aiatient and querulous under ary disappois, as to e ho at the dinner hour, for instance, epeg so saoury ss, and to find one quite tasteless and sapidless. Butter ill ed -- that o of kit failures -- puts beside tenour. -- The author of the Raler used to ke inarticute anil noises oer a faourite food. Was this the sic quite proper to be preceded by the grace? or would the pious n hae doer to postpone his deotions to a seasohe blessing ght be pted with less perturbation? I quarrel with no ns tastes, nor would set thin face against those ecellent things, in their way, jollity aing. But as these eercises, howeer udable, hae little in theof grace racefulness, a n should be sure, before he entures so to grace the that while he is pretending his deotions otherwhere, he is not secretly kissing his hand to so great fish -- his Dagon -- with a special secration of no ark but the fat tureen before hi Graces are the sweet preluding strains to the bas of angels and children; to the roots and seerer repasts of the Chartreuse; to the slender, but not slenderly aowledged, refe of the poor and hule n: but at the heaped-up boards of the paered and the luurious they bee of dissonant od, less tid and tuo the ocethinks, than the noise of those better befitting ans would be, which childreales of, at Hogs Norto too long at our als, or are too curious iudy of the or too disordered in our application to the ross too;bdi?９9lｉb?;/bdi great a portion of those good things (which should be on) to our share, to be able with any grace to say grace. To be thankful for what we grasp eceeding our proportion is to add hypocrisy to injustice. A lurking sense of this truth is what kes the perfornce of this duty sld and spiritless a serice at st tables. In houses where the grace is as indispensable as the napkin, who has not seen that neer settled question arise, as to who shall say it; while the good n of the house and the isitor clergyn, or so uest belike of authority froyears raity, shall be -- bandying about the office between theas a tter of plint, each of thenot unwilling to shift the awkward burthen of an equiocal duty frohis own shoulders?
I once drank tea in pany with two Methodist diines of different persuasions, whoit was fortuo introduce to each other for the first ti that eening. Before the first cup was handed round, one of these reerelen put it to the other, with all due soleity, whether he chose to say any thing. It see it is the with so sectaries to put up a short prayer before this al also. His reerend brother did not at first quite apprehend hi but upon aion, with little less iortance he de ahat it was not a known in his church: in whicurteous easioher acquiesg food nners sake, or in pliah a weak brother, the supplentary or tea-grace was waied aogether. With irit ;ar?9９lｉｂ.;/arght not Lu hae paiwo priests, of his religion, pying into each others hands the plint of perf or otting a sacrifice, -- the hungry God anti, doubtful of his inse, with epet nostrils h oer the two fns, and (as between two stools) going away in the end without his supper.
A short forupon these oasions is fe to want reerence; a long one, I aafraid, ot escape the charge of iertinence. I do not quite approe of the epigraatiess with which that equiocal wag (but  leasant school-fellow) C. V. L., when iortuned frace used to inquire, first slyly leering dowable, quot;Is there no clergyn here?quot; -- signifitly adding, quot;thank G---.quot; Nor do I think our old forat school quite perti, where we were used to preface our bald bread and cheese suppers with a preale, eg with that hule blessing a reition of bes the st awful and oerwhelng to the igination which religion has to offer. Non tunc illis erat locus. I reer we were put to it to recile the phrase quot;good creatures,quot; upon which the blessied, with the fare set before us, wilfully uanding that epression in a low and anil sense, -- til so one recalled a legend, which told how in the golden days of Christs, the young Hospitallers were wont to hae sking joints of roast at upon their nightly boards, till so pious beor, iserating the decies, rather thaes, of the children, uted our flesh farnts, and gae us -- horr referens -- trowsers instead of tton.
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