Graves, C. L. and Lucas, E. V.

“ Nuts being a prime staple of the votaries of this cult, a person who cannot do anything "for nuts" means, by implication, a carnivorous savage who is incapable of progress. Lastly, there remains the ingenious solution that the phrase as commonly employed involves a misspelling. It ought to be "four nuts," and playing four nuts was an ancient but simple game, which may be connected with the cognate phrase about knowing or not knowing "how many beans make five." ”

“ It is right to add the the genuineness of Bulbo's Gastronomica has been seriously impugned, the best authorities (including Francatelli) being convinced that the treatise was the work of a sixteenth-century farceur who belonged to the royal house of Paphlagonia.
Parlour Pathos, Specimens of.—The best speciments of this interesting emotional product are to be found in the words of Royalty Ballads. A good instance is to be found in the following choice quatrain:—
Nature cases not whence or how,
Nature asks not why ”