nal being,
and I trust you will never either of you be under the dominion of such a
tyrant.'

'We should both of us,' said William, 'revolt at the idea of being an
object of contempt to others, such as Uncle Geff is now to us.'

'That's plain English,' replied Frederick, 'but not the most polite
thing to say of one's venerable great uncle, brother Bill, and who has,
moreover, just now given you that superb tiger's skin.'

'The fear of the world's contempt,' said Mr. Stanhope, 'though salutary,
ought not to influence our conduct so much as the consciousness that,
while excess clogs our intellects, we become incapable of the virtuous
exertions we might otherwise make, and that of the talents we have thus
smothered we must one day render an account.'

'And yet there are, I have heard, some men of great abilities and
eminent virtue who are said to eat enormously,' said Frederick.

'True,' replied the tutor, 'extreme hunger is, in some constitutions, a
rapid effect of intense study, and the appetite may be innocently
gratified while it rather adds to the impetus of thought than checks its
advance. Excess begins when the perceptions become weak and indistinct
by indulgence. Every person is able to judge for himself when he
approaches that point, and, if he respect himself, he will stop short of
it. Such men as those to whom you allude feel renovated by their meal,
and return to their intellectual pursuits with increased alacrity, but
the _veritable gourmand_ divides his existence between the contemplation
of what his dinner shall be, the pleasure of eating, and the labour of
digesting it.'

'It is very odd in Uncle Geff to bring his eatables and his cook to
Clairmont. I wonder father will suffer it. What a larder this modern
Lucullus carries about with him!' said Frederick.

'Why, father has indulged him in the practice so many years that I
suppose he does not think it worth his while to set his face against it
now,' replied William. 'Besides, Melange is a superb cook. Sheldon finds
it his interest to keep well with him, and gets into many of his
culinary mysteries, of which father reaps the benefit when he is obliged
to give great dinners. As to the Frenchman himself, it is easy to see he
is the master of his master, and holds him fast by the stomach, as it
were, by a talisman.'

'What an honourable bondage for a man who is proud of his descent from
men who were hand and glove with the conqueror,' said Frederick,
l