The meal which lentils yield is of great richness, and generally contains more casein than either beans or peas. The skin, however, is tough and indigestible, and being much smaller than peas, when served without rejecting the skins, they appear to be almost wholly of tough, fibrous material; hence they are of little value except for soups, _purees_, toasts, and other such dishes as require the rejection of the skin. Lentils have a stronger flavor than any of the other legumes, and their taste is not so generally liked until one has become accustomed to it. Lentils are prepared and cooked in the same manner as dried peas, though they require somewhat less time for cooking. The large dark variety is better soaked for a time previous to cooking, or parboiled for a half hour and then put into new water, to make them less strong in flavor and less dark in color. _RECIPES._ LENTIL PUREE.--Cook the lentils and rub through a colander as for peas _puree_. Season, and serve in the same manner. LENTILS MASHED WITH BEANS.--Lentils may be cooked and prepared in the same manner as directed for mashed peas, but they are less strong in flavor if about one third to one half cooked white beans are used with them. LENTIL GRAVY WITH RICE.--Rub a cupful of cooked lentils through a colander to remove the skins, add one cup of rich milk, part cream if it can be afforded, and salt if desired. Heat to boiling, and thicken with a teaspoonful of flour rubbed smooth in a little cold milk. Serve hot on nicely steamed or boiled rice, or with well cooked macaroni. TABLE TOPICS. The men who kept alive the flame of learning and piety in the Middle Ages were mainly vegetarians.--_Sir William Axon._ According to Xenophon, Cyrus, king of Persia, was brought up on a diet of water, bread, and cresses, till his fifteenth year, when honey and raisins were added; and the family names of Fabii and Lentuli were derived from their customary diet. Thomson, in his poem, "The Seasons," written one hundred and sixty years ago, pays the following tribute to a diet composed of seeds and vegetable products:--#/ "With such a liberal hand has Nature flung These seeds abroad, blown them about in winds-- ... But who their virtues can declare? who pierce, With vision pure, into those secret stores Of health and life and joy--the food of man, While yet he lived in innocence and told A length of golden years, unfleshed in blood? A stranger to the savage arts of life-- Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease-- The _lord_, and not the _tyrant_ of the world."