the city; to marriage or birthday feasts, all their kindred,
and such as are under the protection of the same Jupiter the guardian of
consanguinity; and to such feasts and merry-makings as this those are
to be invited whose tempers are most suitable to the occasion. When we
offer sacrifice to one god, we do not worship all the others that belong
to the same temple and altar at the same time; but suppose we have three
bowls, out of the first we pour oblations to some, out of the second
to others and out of the third to the rest, and none of the gods take
distaste. And in this a company of friends may be likened to the company
of gods; none takes distaste at the order of the invitation, if it be
prudently managed and every one allowed a turn.

QUESTION VI. WHAT IS THE REASON THAT THE SAME ROOM WHICH AT THE
BEGINNING OF A SUPPER SEEMS TOO NARROW APPEARS WIDE ENOUGH AFTERWARDS.

After this it was presently asked, why the room which at the beginning
of supper seems too narrow for the guest is afterwards wide enough; when
the contrary is most likely, after they are filled with the supper. Some
said the posture of our sitting was the cause; for they sit when they
eat, with their full breadth to the table, that they may command it with
their right hand; but after they have supped, they sit more sideways,
and make an acute figure with their bodies, and do not touch the place
according to the superficies, if I may so say, but the line. Now as
cockal bones do not take up as much room when they fall upon one end
as when they fall flat, so every one of us at the beginning sitting
broadwise, and with a full face to the table, afterwards changes
the figure, and turns his depth, not his breadth, to the board. Some
attribute it to the beds whereon we sat, for those when pressed stretch;
as strait shoes after a little wearing have their pores widened, and
grow fit for--sometimes too big for--the foot. An old man in the company
merrily said, that the same feast had two very different presidents and
directors; in the beginning, Hunger, that is not in the least skilled in
ordering and disposing, but afterward Bacchus, whom all acknowledge to
be the best orderer of an army in the world. As therefore Epaminondas,
when the unskilful captains had led their forces into narrow
disadvantageous straits, relieved the phalanx that was fallen foul
on itself and all in disorder, and brought it into good rank and file
again; thus we in the beginning