Page:The history of Tom Jones (1749 Volume 1).pdf/81

 An Objection may perhaps be apprehended from the more delicate, that this Dih is too common and vulgar; for what ele is the Subject of all the Romances, Novels, Plays, and Poems, with which the Stalls abound. Many exquiite Viands might be rejected by the Epicure, if it was a ufficient Caue for his contemning of ofof [sic] them as common and vulgar, that omething was to be found in the mot paultry Alleys under the ame 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 ame Metaphor, conits in the Cookery of the Author; for, as Mr. Pope tells us,

True Wit is Nature to Advantage dret,

What oft’ was thought, but ne’er o well expret.

The ame Animal which hath the Honour to have ome Part of his Fleh eaten at the Table of a Duke, may perhaps be degraded in another Part, and ome of his Limbs gibbeted, as it were, in the vilet Stall in Town. Where then lies the Difference between the Food of the Nobleman and the