the great man's, who waits every day to speak with all the company.
Aliena negotia centum Per caput et circum saliunt latus: A hundred
businesses of other men (many unjust and most impertinent) fly
continually about his head and ears, and strike him in the face like
dors. Let us contemplate him a little at another special scene of
glory, and that is his table. Here he seems to be the lord of all
Nature. The earth affords him her best metals for his dishes, her
best vegetables and animals for his food; the air and sea supply him
with their choicest birds and fishes; and a great many men who look
like masters attend upon him; and yet, when all this is done, even
all this is but Table d'Hote. It is crowded with people for whom he
cares not--with many parasites, and some spies, with the most
burdensome sort of guests--the endeavourers to be witty.

But everybody pays him great respect, everybody commends his meat--
that is, his money; everybody admires the exquisite dressing and
ordering of it--that is, his clerk of the kitchen, or his cook;
everybody loves his hospitality--that is, his vanity. But I desire
to know why the honest innkeeper who provides a public table for his
profits should be but of a mean profession, and he who does it for
his honour a munificent prince. You'll say, because one sells and
the other gives. Nay, both sell, though for different things--the
one for plain money, the other for I know not what jewels, whose
value is in custom and in fancy. If, then, his table be made a
snare (as the Scripture speaks) to his liberty, where can he hope
for freedom? there is always and everywhere some restraint upon him.
He is guarded with crowds, and shackled with formalities. The half
hat, the whole hat, the half smile, the whole smile, the nod, the
embrace, the positive parting with a little bow, the comparative at
the middle of the room, the superlative at the door; and if the