Being one day in these assemblies, and seeing a young man who ate his meat without bread, he took occasion to rally him for it upon a question that was started touching the imposing of names. "Can we give any reasons," said he, "why a man is called flesh-eater--that is to say, a devourer of flesh?--for every man eats flesh when he has it; and I do not believe it to be upon that account that a man is called so." "Nor I neither," said one of the company. "But," continued Socrates, "if a man takes delight to eat his meat without bread, do you not take him to be, indeed, a flesh-eater?" "I should think it difficult to find another who better would deserve that name." Upon which somebody else taking the word said, "What think you of him who, with a little bread only, eats a great deal of flesh?" "I should," replied Socrates, "judge him, too, to be a flesh-eater; and whereas others ask of the gods in their prayers to give them an abundance of fruits, such men in their petitions it is likely would pray only for abundance of flesh." The young man whom Socrates had in mind, suspecting that he spoke upon his account, took some bread, but continued still to eat a great deal of flesh with it. Socrates perceived him, and showing him with his finger to those that sat next to him, said to them, "Take notice of your neighbour, and see whether it be the meat that makes him eat his bread, or the bread that makes him eat his meat." In a like occasion, seeing a man sop the same morsel of meat in several sauces, he said, "Is it possible to make a sauce that will cost more, and be not so good, as one that is made by taking out of several different sauces at once? For there being more ingredients than usual, no doubt it costs more; but then because we mix things together, which the cooks never used to mingle, because they agree not well with one another, we certainly spoil the whole; and is it not a jest to be curious in having good cooks, and at the same time to be so fantastical as to alter the relish of the dishes they have dressed? Besides, when we have once got a habit of eating thus of several dishes at once, we are not so well satisfied when we have no longer that variety. Whereas a man who contents himself to eat but of one dish at a time finds no great inconvenience in having but one dish of meat for his dinner." He made likewise this remark: that to express what the other Greeks called "to eat a meal," the Athenians said "to make good cheer;" and that the word "good" shows us that we ought to eat such things only as will neither disorder the body nor the mind, which are easily had, and purchased without great expense. From whence he inferred that they alone who live temperately and soberly can truly be said to make good cheer--that is to say, to eat well. BOOK IV.