2.  Impatient men, who, abhorring inactivity at the table, have contracted the habit of attacking at once whatever is placed before them.

3.  The inattentive, who eat whatever is put before them, and look upon their meals as a labor they have to undergo.  All that will sustain them they put on the same level, and sit at the table as the oyster does in his bed.

4.  The voracious, who, gifted with an appetite which they seek to diminish, seek the first victim they can find to appease the gastric juice, which devours them, and wish to make it serve as a basis to the different envois they wish to send to the same destination.

Professors of gastronomy never eat bouilli, from respect to the principles previously announced, that bouilli is flesh without the juices. [Footnote:  This idea which began to make its impression on bouilli has disappeared.  It is replaced by a roasted filet, a turbot, or a matelote.]

Section III.  Fowls.

I am very fond of second courses, and devoutly believe that the whole gallinaceous family was made to enrich our larders and to deck our tables.

From the quail to the turkey, whenever we find a fowl of this class, we are sure to find too, light aliment, full of flavor, and just as fit for the convalescent as for the man of the most robust health.

Which one of us, condemned to the fare of the fathers of the desert, would not have smiled at the idea of a well-carved chicken’s wing, announcing his rapid rendition to civilized life?

We are not satisfied with the flavor nature has given to gallinaceous fowls, art has taken possession of them, and under the pretext of ameliorating, has made martyrs of them.  They have not only been deprived of the means of reproduction, but they have been kept in solitude and darkness, and forced to eat until they were led to an unnatural state of fatness.

It is very true that this unnatural grease is very delicious, and that this damnable skill gives them the fineness and succulence which are the delight of our best tables.

Thus ameliorated, the fowl is to the kitchen what the canvass is to painters.  To charlatans it is the cap of Fortunatus, and is served up boiled, roasted, fried, hot, cold, whole or dismembered, with or without sauce, broiled, stuffed, and always with equal success.

Three portions of old France disputed for the honor of furnishing the best fowls, viz:  Caux, Mans, and Bresse.

In relation to capons, and about this there is some doubt, the one on the table always seeming the best.  Bresse seems, however, to have pre-eminence in pullets, for they are round as an apple.  It is a pity they are so rare in Paris!

Section IV.  The turkey.

The turkey is certainly one of the most glorious presents made by the new world to the old.

Those persons who always wish to know more than others, say that the turkey was known to the ancients, and was served up at the wedding feast of Charlemagne.  They say it is an error to attribute the importation to the Jesuits.  To these paradoxes but two things can be opposed: