"I would have all my friends know that they need not fear (though I am become a country gentleman) I will trespass against their temperance and sobriety. No, sir, I shall retain so much of (20) the good sentiments for the conduct of life which we cultivated in each other at our club, as to contemn all inordinate pleasures; but particularly remember, with our beloved Tully,[162] that the delight in food consists in desire, not satiety. They who most passionately pursue pleasure, seldomest arrive at it. Now I am writing to a (25) philosopher, I cannot forbear mentioning the satisfaction I took in the passage I read yesterday in the same Tully. A nobleman of Athens made a compliment to Plato the morning after he had supped at his house: 'Your entertainments do not only please when you give them, but also the day after.' (30) [162] Marcus Tullius Cicero. "I am, my worthy friend, "Your most obedient, humble servant, "William Sentry." T. NOTES The heavy marginal figures stand for page, and the lighter ones for line I. THE SPECTATOR =Motto.= "He does not lavish at a blaze his fire, Sudden to glare and in a smoke expire; But rises from a cloud of smoke to light, And pours his specious miracles to sight." --Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 143. P. Francis's tr. That is, a well-planned work of art will not begin with a flash and end in smoke; but, beginning modestly, will grow more lucid and brilliant as it proceeds. Horace, in the lines immediately preceding these, quotes in translation the opening words of the _Odyssey_ as an example of a good introduction. The mottoes of the Spectator papers--nearly all chosen from the Latin poets--are usually, as in this case, very apt. They give a certain air of dignity and easy scholarship to the treatment of familiar themes. In a later paper (No. 221, written by Addison) the Spectator defends himself with charming humour against any charge of pedantry in the use of them. =45=: 12. =My own history.= In this paper Addison of course is not giving us his own history; but he _is_ giving us a truthful picture of his own temperament. His love of reading and of travel, his dignified composure, his taciturnity, his habit of quiet observation--they are all faithfully set down. =47=: 20. =The measure of a pyramid.= Addison perhaps had in mind the works on this subject by John Greaves (1602-1652), a mathematician and antiquary; a posthumous pamphlet by him had recently (1706) been published. Addison's own travels never extended farther than Italy.