Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
64.
_Why suffer not they the table to be taken cleane away, and voided quite, but will have somewhat alwaies remaining upon it?_ GIVE they not heereby covertly to understand, that wee ought of that which is present to reserve evermore something for the time to come, and on this day to remember the morrow. Or thought they it not a point of civill honesty and elegance, to represse and keepe downe their appetite when they have before them enough still to content and satisfie it to the full; for lesse will they desire that which they have not, when they accustome themselves to absteine from that which they have. Or is not this a custome of courtesie and humanitie to their domesticall servants, who are not so well pleased to take their victuals simply, as to partake the same, supposing that by this meanes in some sort they doe participate with their masters at the table. Or rather is it not, because we ought to suffer no sacred thing to be emptie; and the boord you wot well is held sacred.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.