appealing to a very large class throughout the country who at all cost wish
to keep up appearances. It is an important class, and one on which the
slow but gradual march of civilisation depends. We fear that any attempt
to improve the extreme poor, who live surrounded by dirt and misery, would
be hopeless, unless they still have some lingering feeling of this
self-respect. For the poor woman who snatches a meal off
bread-and-dripping, which she eats without a table-cloth, and then repairs
to the gin-shop to wash it down, nothing can be done. This class will
gradually die out as civilisation advances. This is seen, even in the
present day, in America.

Fortunately, there is plenty of scope in vegetarian cooking not merely for
refinement, but even elegance. Do not despise the sprinkle of chopped
parsley and red specks of bread-crumbs coloured with cochineal, so often
referred to throughout the following pages. Remember that the cost of
these little accessories to comfort is virtually _nil_. We must remember
also that one sense works upon another. We can please the palate through
the eye. There is some undoubted connection between these senses. If you
doubt it, suck a lemon in front of a German band and watch the result. The
sight of meat causes the saliva to run from the mouths of the carnivorous
animals at the Zoo. This is often noticeable in the case of a dog watching
people eat, and it is an old saying, "It makes one's mouth water to look at
it." In the case of endeavouring to induce a change of living in grown-up
persons, such as husband or children, there is perhaps no method we can
pursue so efficacious as that of making dishes look pretty. A dish of
bright red tomatoes, reposing on the white bosom of a bed of macaroni,
relieved here and there by a few specks of green--what a difference to a
similar dish all mashed up together, and in which the macaroni showed signs
of dirty smears!