"To effect a purpose, the liquid must be hot enough to act instantaneously. It does not, however, reach S this point until it has long been submitted to the action of a blazing and hot fire. "By the following means it may be ascertained if the friture be heated to the wished-for degree, cut a piece of bread in the form of a cube, and dip it in the pan for five or six seconds, if you take it out firm and dark put in what you wish to prepare immediately. If it be not, stir the fire and begin again. "The surprise being once effected, moderate the fire that the action may not be too hurried, and that by a prolonged heat the juices it contains may be changed and the flavor enhanced. "You have doubtless observed that fritures dissolve neither the sugar nor salt their respective natures require. You should not fail then to reduce those substances to a very fine powder in order that they may adhere the more readily, and season the dish by juxtaposition. "I do not tell you about oils and greases for the different treatises I have put in your library give you sufficient light. "Do not forget, however, when you get one of those trout which do not weigh more than half a pound, and which come from murmuring streams, far from the capitol, to use the finest olive oil. This delicate dish duly powdered and garnished with slices of lemon is fit for a cardinal. [Footnote: Mr. Aulissin, a very well informed Neapolitan lawyer, and a good amateur performer on the violoncello, dining one day with me, and eating some thing that pleased him, said--"Questo e un vero boccone di cardinale." "Why," said I, in the same tongue, not say "boccone in Re." "Seignore," said he, "we Italians do nothing; a king cannot be a gourmand, for royal dinners are too short and solemn. With cardinals things are very different." He shrugged his shoulders as he spoke.] "Eperlans (smelt or sprat) should be treated in the same manner. This is the becfique of the water, and has the same perfume and excellence. "These two prescriptions are founded in the very nature of things. Experience tells us that olive oil should only be used with things which are soon cooked, and which do not demand too high a temperature, because prolonged ebullition developes an empyreumatic and disagreable taste produced by a few particles of pulp, which can, being impossible to be gotten rid of, carbonize. "You tried my furnace, and were the first person who ever succeeded in producing an immense fried turbot. On that day there was great rejoicing among the elect. "Continue to be coeval in all you attempt, and never forget that from the moment guests enter the salon WE are responsible for their happiness." MEDITATION VIII. ON THIRST. THIRST is the internal feeling of a wish to drink.