helen n ray

The receipts composing the Volume here submitted to the Public have been collected under peculiarly favourable circumstances by a Lady of distinction, whose productions in the lighter department of literature entitle her to a place among the most successful writers of the present day.

Moving in the first circles of rank and fashion, her associations have qualified her to furnish directions adapted to the manners and taste of the most refined Luxury; whilst long and attentive observation, and the communications of an extensive acquaintance, have enabled her equally to accommodate them to the use of persons of less ample means and of simpler and more economical habits.

The intimate connexion between the Science of Cookery and the Science of Health, the sympathies subsisting between every part of the system and the stomach, and the absolute necessity of strict attention not less to the manner of preparing the alimentary substances offered to that organ than to their quality and quantity, have been of late years so repeatedly and so forcibly urged by professional pens, that there needs no argument here to prove the utility of a safe Guide and Director in so important a department of domestic economy as that which is the subject of this Volume.

In many more cases, indeed, than the uninitiated would imagine, is the healthy tone of the stomach dependent on the proper preparation of the food, the healthy tone of the body in general on that of the stomach, and the healthy tone of the mind on that of the body: consequently the first of these conditions ought to command the vigilance and solicitude of all who are desirous of securing the true enjoyment of life-the mens sana in corpore sano.