Note 55 — Chapter VII · Men and Manners

Compare the unintentionally funny passage in E. 3112ff}. If thou sittest at a great man’s table, be not greedy at it, nor say, “What a lot of things are on it!”... Stretch not your hand wheresoe’er your glance wanders, nor thrust yourself forward into the dish. Eat like a man [i.e., do not gnaw or gobble as an animal would do] what is set before thee, and do not bolt your food, lest you be loathed. Be first to leave off for the sake of good manners, and be not insatiate lest you offend. Cp. E. 8 which also treats of “How to behave.”