 confirmation of this truth, he immediately produced
a sample of each, which though in spirit and versification, as different as the
Odes of Horace and our present laureat, Peregrine did not scruple to pronounce
altogether congenial; notwithstanding the violence he by this sentence offered
to his own conscience, and a certain alarm of his pride, that was weak enough to
be disturbed by the physician's ridiculous vanity and presumption, which not
contented with displaying his importance in the world of taste and polite
literature, manifested itself in arrogating certain material discoveries in the
province of physick, which could not fail to advance him to the highest pinnacle
of that profession, considering the recommendation of his other talents,
together with a liberal fortune which he inherited from his father.
 

                                 Chapter XLVIII

The Doctor prepares an Entertainment in the Manner of the Ancients, which is
attended with divers ridiculous Circumstances
 
In a word, our young gentleman, by his insinuating behaviour, obtained the full
confidence of the doctor, who invited him to an entertainment, which he intended
to prepare in the manner of the ancients. Pickle, struck with this idea, eagerly
embraced the proposal, which he honoured with many encomiums, as a plan in all
respects worthy of his genius and apprehension; and the day was appointed at
some distance of time, that the treater might have leisure to compose certain
pickles and confections which were not to be found among the culinary
preparations of these degenerate days.
    With a view of rendering the physician's taste more conspicuous, and
extracting from it the more diversion, Peregrine proposed that some foreigners
should partake of the banquet; and the task being left to his care and
discretion, he actually bespoke the company of a French marquis, an Italian
count and a German baron, whom he knew to be egregious coxcombs, and therefore
more likely to enhance the joy of the entertainment.
    Accordingly, the hour being arrived, he conducted them to the hotel where
the physician lodged, after having regaled their expectations with an elegant
meal in the genuine old Roman taste; and they were received by Mr. Pallet, who
did the honours of the house, while his friend superintended the rotisseur
below. By this communicative painter, the guests understood that the doctor had
met with numerous difficulties in the execution of his design; that no fewer
than five cooks had been dismissed, because they could not prevail upon their
own consciences to obey his directions in things that were contrary to the
present practice of their art; and that although he had at last engaged a
person, by an extraordinary premium, to comply with his orders, the fellow was
so astonished
