[The translator here omits half a dozen songs, which are essentially French, and which no one can do justice to in another tongue.]
H. … DE P …
I believe I am the first person who ever conceived the idea of a gastronomical academy. I am afraid, however, I was a little in advance of the day, as people may judge by what took place fifteen years afterwards.
The President, H. de P., the ideas of whom braved every age and era, speaking to three of the most enlightened men of his age, (Laplace, Chaptal, and Berthollet,) said "I look in the history of the discovery of a new dish, which prolongs our pleasures, as far more important than the discovery of a new star."
I shall never think science sufficiently honored until I see a cook in the first class of the institute.
The good old President was always delighted when he thought of his labor. He always wished to furnish me an epigraph, not like that which made Montesquieu a member of the academy. I therefore, wrote several verses about it, but to be copied.
Dans ses doctes travaux il fut infatigable;
Il eut de grands emplois, qu'il remplit dignement:
Et quoiqu'il filt profond, erudit et savant,
Il ne se crut jamais dispense d'etre aimable.