of employing their thoughts on the subject, it is their boast that they do it.  St. Gregory, one of the Christian fathers, says:  ’It is not the quantity or the quality of the meat, or drink, but the love of it that is condemned;’ that is to say, the indulgence beyond the absolute demands of nature; the hankering after it; the neglect of some duty or other for the sake of the enjoyments of the table.

25.  This love of what are called ‘good eating and drinking,’ if very unamiable in grown-up persons, is perfectly hateful in a youth; and, if he indulge in the propensity, he is already half ruined.  To warn you against acts of fraud, robbery, and violence, is not my province; that is the business of those who make and administer the law.  I am not talking to you against acts which the jailor and the hangman punish; nor against those moral offences which all men condemn; but against indulgences, which, by men in general, are deemed not only harmless, but meritorious; but which the observation of my whole life has taught me to regard as destructive to human happiness, and against which all ought to be cautioned even in their boyish days.  I have been a great observer, and I can truly say, that I have never known a man, ’fond of good eating and drinking,’ as it is called; that I have never known such a man (and hundreds I have known) who was worthy of respect.

26.  Such indulgences are, in the first place, very expensive.  The materials are costly, and the preparations still more so.  What a monstrous thing, that, in order to satisfy the appetite of a man, there must be a person or two at work every day!  More fuel, culinary implements, kitchen-room; what! all these merely to tickle the palate of four or five people, and especially people who can hardly pay their way!  And, then, the loss of time:  the time spent in pleasing the palate:  it is truly horrible to behold people who ought to be at work, sitting, at the three meals, not less than three of the about fourteen hours that they are out of their beds!  A youth, habituated to this sort of indulgence, cannot be valuable to any employer.  Such a youth cannot be deprived of his table-enjoyments on any account:  his eating and drinking form the momentous concern of his life:  if business interfere with that, the business must give way.  A young man, some years ago, offered himself to me, on a particular occasion, as an amanuensis, for which he appeared to be perfectly qualified.  The terms were settled, and I, who wanted the job dispatched, requested him to sit down, and begin; but he, looking out of the window, whence he could see the church clock, said, somewhat hastily, ‘I cannot stop now, sir, I must go to dinner.’  ‘Oh!’ said I, ’you must go to dinner, must you!  Let the dinner, which you must wait upon to-day, have your constant services, then:  for you and I shall never agree.’  He had told me that