But important as good Cookery, in itself, may be in its influence upon health, there is still another essential, which must not be overlooked.  And it is that of variety.  The oft-quoted phrase of TOUJOURS PERDRIX bears upon this very point.  It is a way of saying that even a luscious dish when constantly repeated becomes wearisome, or, in other words, that there is too much of the same thing over and over again.  And if a ceaseless repetition of the same dish—­however well it may be cooked—­palls upon the palate, it is at least certain that it is equally burdensome to the stomach.  Dr. Horace Dobell well expresses this fact when he says that it is of the highest importance to avoid unnecessarily limiting the variety of food allowed to all persons, but especially to those of poor appetites and troublesome digestions.  Monotonous, uninteresting meals depress the spirits and are subversive of appetite, digestion, and nutrition.

COOKERY AS A PREVENTIVE OF DRUNKENNESS.

Plutarch tells us that Themistocles laughing at his own son, who got his mother, and by his mother’s means his father also, to indulge him, said to the boy that he had the most power of anyone in Greece:  “For the Athenians command the rest of Greece, I command the Athenians, your mother commands me, and you command your mother.”  In the same way it is easy to make a defective system of education responsible for much of the existing drunkenness.  First of all we have a scheme of education which fails to provide instruction in a girl’s domestic duties; then we have the wife who undertakes the task for which she has never been properly trained; next, instead of well-cooked and very much varied meals, we have a conspicuous and a disastrous failure; and finally, we have the bread-winner driven to the public-house—­and happiness has left that home for ever.  But this is an old story, yet, unfortunately, it is a true one; and it will continue to be true until a clearer perception of what a domestic training should be is more universally recognised.  I am sure that I do not exaggerate when I say that millions of our English-speaking race are living this life without the slightest glimmering of what domestic content might be theirs.  Surely the word “home” for the artisan should signify something more than a place where he is badly fed.  Still, it is a solemn fact that no more concrete definition of the word has ever been forthcoming.  Now, such a state of affairs cannot be excused on the score of expense, for the crowning triumph of good Cookery is its very cheapness.