text:  He had applied the art of French cookery to the rude material of the world and refined and reduced all things into a _sauce piquante_--all its realities were concentrated in essences; and disdaining the grosser tastes of mankind he lived upon the _aroma_ of high life--an epicure even among epicures; yet not an indolent enjoyer of the luxuries of his condition but a keen restless and eager _student_ of pleasurable sensations--an Apicius polished by the manners and furnished with the arts of the most self-enjoying condition of mankind that of an English gentleman of fortune in the 18th century