"Nature delights in the most plain and simple diet." He then gives some rules for temperance, which are well worth attending to. This passage of Addison is much in the spirit of that of Horace: ----"Variæ res Ut noceant homini, credas, memor illius escæ Quæ simplex olim tibi sederit. At simul assis Miscueris elixa, simul conchylia turdis; Dulcia se in bilem vertent, stomachoque tumultum Lenta feret pituita." Most of the modern writers on dietetics, as well as those who have preceded them, recommend a very considerable abridgment of the quantity of food, usually consumed at the table of the affluent. And while I strongly advise you to be rather abstemious as to _quantity_ of food, so I wish you not to be in the slightest degree fastidious as to its _quality_, provided it is wholesome, and free from qualities absolutely revolting. You may naturally like one thing better than another, and partake of what you prefer, when it comes in your way; but it is painful to see a young man of any intellect indulging in the niceties of an epicure, and really appearing to care much about what he eats, and what he drinks. When I commenced the life of a country clergyman, I was often received, with almost parental kindness, in a house, in which good taste of all kinds,--moral, intellectual, social, and _culinary_,--presided in an eminent degree. Every now and then, some particular dish made its appearance, under the impression that I was particularly fond of it. Probably I had eaten of it some days before, because it chanced to be near me, or from some similar accident. I was grateful for the kindness and attention, but felt mortified, almost degraded, at its being supposed that I cared about one thing more than another, where all were good and wholesome. Do not get into the habit of spending your money in ices, and other delicacies, at the pastry-cook's and confectioner's. You say that you are hungry;-- "--------Panis Latrantem stomachum bene leniet." If your hunger would disdain a piece of dry bread, it certainly has no claim to be attended to at all. You say that you can _afford_ to indulge yourself in the delicacies to which I have alluded. I do not think that you can; at all events, your money may be more worthily spent-- "Non est melius quo insumere possis? Cur eget indignus quisquam, te divite? Quare Templa ruunt antiqua Deûm?" In other words, if you have the money to spare, give it to the deserving poor, or to the Church-building Society. Few expenses are more unsatisfactory in retrospect,--I had almost said, more _disgraceful_,--than those which have been incurred by sensual self-indulgence; incurred to gratify a vitiated palate and a pampered appetite.