As to eating, the English are rarely either _gourmands_ or _gourmets_, but they have a rooted belief in the value of an abundant flesh diet, which cannot be good for health unless accompanied by hard exercise. Although the English are not extravagant like the French from a love of expensive delicacies, they are extravagant in the display of great abundance. Immense pieces of the finest meat in the world appear on English tables, and then disappear to be replaced by others equally imposing. People tell you of the quantities eaten by their servants with a smile of indulgence. In the poorer classes there is waste of another kind from simple ignorance and want of culinary economy and art. In a French household the smallest fragments make a little dish, and nothing is lost; in England this kind of economy is practised least where it would be most required. In the French middle and lower classes the daily use of soups is an economy, as the soup is the final save-all of the little establishment, and it presents the materials in the most nourishing and digestible form. As to extravagance, the well-to-do French and English may be equally extravagant, but in different ways, and as to temperance in eating, there is little difference. The French eat heavier meals, but they eat less frequently. Each nation accuses the other of over-eating, and doctors say that the accusation is merited in both cases. [Sidenote: Stately Service and plain Table.] [Sidenote: English Asceticism.] One is sometimes struck in England by the combination of a very stately service with a very plain table. Fine linen, expensive plate, formidably dignified servants, and all this ceremony about a leg of mutton and some boiled potatoes. Thackeray amused himself with noting this contrast. It is a revelation of English character, which is deeply attached to state and style, but is really not given over to sensual pleasures. Occasionally the English go rather far, perhaps, in the direction of plain living. The total abstainer gives you pure water, the _very_ moderate drinker forgets to pass the decanter, and so do his servants. I remember being invited once to an early dinner in the country and riding to it several miles in drenching rain. I was cold and wet, for it was winter, and I looked forward confidently to warm old English hospitality; but my host had _principles_, and principles are nothing if you do not act up to them, so he gave me a slice of cold beef with a glass of cold water. That _menu_ was easily and long remembered. CHAPTER V THRIFT [Sidenote: Why Thrift is a Social Virtue.] Thrift is classed as a social virtue, because in a thrifty society few people fall upon others for their support. The thrifty man looks to his own independence during sickness, and to that of his wife and children after his death, so that he is never burdensome either to public or private charity. [Sidenote: Thrift often associated with Meanness.]