sed the evening in
jests and laughter, and in deeper talk! It is true you may dine at many
houses more sumptuously than at mine but nowhere will you find more
unconstrained gaiety, simplicity and freedom. Only make the experiment,
and if you do not ever afterwards prefer my table to any other, never
favour me with your company again.

_To Avitus_

It would be a long story, and of no great importance, if I were to tell
you by what accident I dined lately with a man who, in his own opinion,
entertained us with great splendour and economy, but in my opinion with
meanness combined with extravagance. He and a few of his guests enjoyed
some very excellent dishes indeed, but the fare placed before the rest
of the company was of the most inferior kind. There were three kinds of
wine in small bottles, but it was not intended that the guests should
take their choice at all. The best was for himself and for us; another
vintage was for his friends of a lower order--for you must know he
divides his friends into classes--and the third kind was for his own and
his guests freed-men. My neighbor noticed this, and asked me if I
approved of it. "Not at all," I said.

"What then," said he, "is your custom in entertaining?"

"Mine," said I, "is to offer the same fare to everybody. I invite my
friends to dinner without separating them into classes. Everyone who
comes to my table is equal, and even my freed-men are then my guests
just as much as anyone else."

He asked me if I did not find this very expensive. I assured him that it
was not so at all, and that the whole secret lay in drinking no better
wine myself that I gave to others. If a man is wise enough to moderate
his own luxury, he will not find it very expensive to entertain all his
visitors on equal terms. Restrain your own tastes if you would really
economise. This is a better way of saving expense than making these
insulting distinctions between guests.

It would be a pity if a man of your excellent disposition should be
imposed upon by the immoderate ostentation which prevails at some tables
under the guise of frugality. I tell you of this as an example of what
you ought to shun. Nothing is to be more avoided than this preposterous
association of extravagance and meanness--defects which are unpleasant
enough when found separately, but are particularly detestable when
combined.

_To Baebius Macer_

I am glad to hear that you are so great an admirer of my Uncle Pl