I own that I am disposed to say grace upon twenty other occasions in the
course of the day besides my dinner. I want a form for setting out upon
a pleasant walk, for a moonlight ramble, for a friendly meeting, or a
solved problem. Why have we none for books, those spiritual repasts--a
grace before Milton--a grace before Shakespeare--a devotional exercise
proper to be said before reading the _Fairy Queen_?--but, the received
ritual having prescribed these forms to the solitary ceremony of
manducation, I shall confine my observations to the experience which I
have had of the grace, properly so called; commending my new scheme for
extension to a niche in the grand philosophical, poetical, and perchance
in part heretical liturgy, now compiling by my friend Homo Humanus, for
the use of a certain snug congregation of Utopian Rabelaesian
Christians, no matter where assembled.--C. LAMB. _Grace before Meat._