On turning over the pages of a writer on Spain, I am reminded that the offer of the house is nothing more than an evidence of Spanish hollowness and insincerity. The offer of the house is a sign of civility, just as much as the words, “Your obedient humble servant,” and these words are just as much an evidence of our insincerity as the “offer of the house.” It is the same thing with the offer of pot-luck. When first made, it is declined. But when the answer is, “No se meta usted in eso,” “Do not trouble yourself in that matter,” by which is implied that no engagement stands in the way, the offer is then again repeated and accepted. That there should be three questions put and answered, in reference to an invitation to dinner, will be construed into an evidence of a want of hospitality. Are _we_ a people to judge of hospitality? A very hospitable person (in our way) I had once the misfortune to arouse to fierce indignation by selecting this term to show the perversion, in modern idioms, of classical terms, we applying the Latin word to a repast from which are excluded those to whom the Roman hospitality was offered--the poor and hungry. Those who have travelled in the East will surely not say that the people of the East are inhospitable; yet the people of the East never invite you to dinner. In fact, hospitality is incompatible with invitations to dinner. Where every one is welcome, it is impossible that you should invite. You may invite a person for the sake of his company, and coming to you at the time of meals, he may eat with you; but he is not invited for the purpose of eating. The meal offered is, in fact, an obligation conferred, and must be felt as such by a person of delicacy, and will be accepted with the same measure as any other favour. Is not this the interpretation of the contempt of the Romans for the Parasites or the Dinner-hunters. In one of the Dialogues of Xenophon the difference is illustrated. Socrates being invited to supper, at first refuses, and only accepts after a due reluctance on his part, and as due a persistence on the part of Amphytria,--Xenophon taking care to point out that he had acted in this respect properly. It is acknowledged, that the facility of intercourse in France, as contrasted with England, and the ease with which people may congregate and visit each other at the time of day when such meetings are most appropriate--the evening--arises from the absence of formal invitation; in other words, restriction on intercourse is the result of our fashion of hospitality.