The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling | Page 8

without your
consent, but absolutely against it; and give me at least leave, in this
public manner, to declare that I am, with the highest respect and
gratitude,--
Sir,
Your most obliged,
Obedient, humble servant,
HENRY FIELDING.

The History of Tom Jones, A FOUNDLING.

BOOK I.
CONTAINING AS MUCH OF THE BIRTH OF THE FOUNDLING
AS IS NECESSARY OR PROPER TO ACQUAINT THE READER
WITH IN THE BEGINNING OF THIS HISTORY.

Chapter i.
The introduction to the work, or bill of fare to the feast.
An author ought to consider himself, not as a gentleman who gives a
private or eleemosynary treat, but rather as one who keeps a public
ordinary, at which all persons are welcome for their money. In the

former case, it is well known that the entertainer provides what fare he
pleases; and though this should be very indifferent, and utterly
disagreeable to the taste of his company, they must not find any fault;
nay, on the contrary, good breeding forces them outwardly to approve
and to commend whatever is set before them. Now the contrary of this
happens to the master of an ordinary. Men who pay for what they eat
will insist on gratifying their palates, however nice and whimsical these
may prove; and if everything is not agreeable to their taste, will
challenge a right to censure, to abuse, and to d--n their dinner without
controul.
To prevent, therefore, giving offence to their customers by any such
disappointment, it hath been usual with the honest and well-meaning
host to provide a bill of fare which all persons may peruse at their first
entrance into the house; and having thence acquainted themselves with
the entertainment which they may expect, may either stay and regale
with what is provided for them, or may depart to some other ordinary
better accommodated to their taste.
As we do not disdain to borrow wit or wisdom from any man who is
capable of lending us either, we have condescended to take a hint from
these honest victuallers, and shall prefix not only a general bill of fare
to our whole entertainment, but shall likewise give the reader particular
bills to every course which is to be served up in this and the ensuing
volumes.
The provision, then, which we have here made is no other than Human
Nature. Nor do I fear that my sensible reader, though most luxurious in
his taste, will start, cavil, or be offended, because I have named but one
article. The tortoise--as the alderman of Bristol, well learned in eating,
knows by much experience--besides the delicious calipash and calipee,
contains many different kinds of food; nor can the learned reader be
ignorant, that in human nature, though here collected under one general
name, is such prodigious variety, that a cook will have sooner gone
through all the several species of animal and vegetable food in the
world, than an author will be able to exhaust so extensive a subject.
An objection may perhaps be apprehended from the more delicate, that

this dish is too common and vulgar; for what else is the subject of all
the romances, novels, plays, and poems, with which the stalls abound?
Many exquisite viands might be rejected by the epicure, if it was a
sufficient cause for his contemning of them as common and vulgar, that
something was to be found in the most paltry alleys under the same
name. In reality, true nature is as difficult to be met with in authors, as
the Bayonne ham, or Bologna sausage, is to be found in the shops.
But the whole, to continue the same metaphor, consists in the cookery
of the author; for, as Mr Pope tells us--
"True wit is nature to advantage drest; What oft was thought, but ne'er
so well exprest."
The same animal which hath the honour to have some part of his flesh
eaten at the table of a duke, may perhaps be degraded in another part,
and some of his limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilest stall in town.
Where, then, lies the difference between the food of the nobleman and
the porter, if both are at dinner on the same ox or calf, but in the
seasoning, the dressing, the garnishing, and the setting forth? Hence the
one provokes and incites the most languid appetite, and the other turns
and palls that which is the sharpest and keenest.
In like manner, the excellence of the mental entertainment consists less
in the subject than in the author's skill in well dressing it up. How
pleased, therefore, will the reader be to find that we have, in the
following work, adhered closely to one of the highest principles of the
best cook which the present age, or perhaps that of