-building Society. Few expenses are
more unsatisfactory in retrospect,--I had almost said, more
_disgraceful_,--than those which have been incurred by sensual
self-indulgence; incurred to gratify a vitiated palate and a pampered
appetite.

Self-denial is recommended by the classical writers of antiquity, as
well as by the most sensible of modern authors; and, what is of
infinitely more importance, is strongly inculcated by the Christian
religion. But how shall self-denial be practised _at all_, if it cannot
be practised in the low matter of eating and drinking?

Read again and again the paper of Addison, and the Satire of Horace,
(the second of the second Book), from which I have made my quotations.
Read also the following passages from that accurate observer of the
habits and manners of social life, the son of Sirach:

_If thou sit at a bountiful table, be not greedy upon it, and say not,
There is much meat on it.--Eat, as it becometh a man, those things that
are set before thee; and devour not, lest thou be hated. Leave off
first for manners' sake; and be not insatiable, lest thou offend._

_A very little is sufficient for a man well nurtured, and he fetcheth
not his wind short upon his bed._

_Sound sleep cometh of moderate eating; he riseth early, and his wits
are with him: but the pain of watching, and choler, and pangs of the
belly, are with an insatiable man._

I remain,
My dear Nephew,
Your affectionate Uncle.

FOOTNOTES:

[128:1] No. 195.

LETTER X.

ENGLISH READING.

MY DEAR NEPHEW,

When at Oxford, you will not have much time for any reading, excepting
that which has some reference to your examination. During the vacations,
however, which occupy about half the year, you are more at liberty, and
will do well, as I have already suggested to you, to give a good deal of
your leisure to increasing your acquaintance with the classical writers
of your own language.

Both at Oxford and home, endeavour, on most days, to catch some little
portion of time,--a quarter of an hour may be sufficient,--for religious
reading. Melmoth's "Great Importance of a Religious Life," and the
abridgment of Law's "Serious Call," adopted by the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, are two of the best books that occur to me, for the
purpose of impressing you with the absolute necessity, of giving
religion the first place in your thoughts and your heart. You may read
either of them through in an ho