the power
of any one besides yourself, to redress. Whether or not, you shall think
it a proper Case to come before your Court of Honour, I cannot tell: but
thus it is.

I am Chaplain to an honourable Family, very regular at the Hours of
Devotion, and I hope of an unblameable life: but, for not offering to
rise at the Second Course, I found my Patron and his Lady very sullen and
out of humour; though, at first, I did not know the reason of it.

At length, when I happened to help myself to a jelly, the Lady of the
house, otherwise a devout woman, told me "It did not become a Man of my
Cloth, to delight in such frivolous food!" But as I still continued to
sit out the last course, I was yesterday informed by the butler, that
"His Lordship had no further occasion for my service."

All which is humbly submitted to your consideration, by,

Sir,

Your most humble servant, &c._

The case of this Gentleman deserves pity, especially if he loves
sweetmeats; to which, if I may guess by his letter, he is no enemy.

In the meantime, I have often wondered at the indecency of discarding the
holiest man from the table, as soon as the most delicious parts of the
entertainment are served up: and could never conceive a reason for so
absurd a custom.

Is it because a licorous palate, or a sweet tooth (as they call it), is
not consistent with the sanctity of his character?

This is but a trifling pretence! No man of the most rigid virtue, gives
offence by any excesses in plum pudding or plum porridge; and that,
because they are the first parts of the dinner. Is there anything that
tends to _incitation_ in sweetmeats, more than in ordinary dishes?
Certainly not! Sugar-plums are a very innocent diet; and conserves of a
much colder nature than your common pickles.

I have sometimes thought that the Ceremony of the _Chaplain flying away
from the Dessert_ was typical and figurative. To mark out to the company,
how they ought to retire from all the luscious baits of temptation, and
deny their appetites the gratifications that are most pleasing to them.

Or, at least, to signify that we ought to stint ourselves in the most
lawful satisfactions; and not make our Pleasure, but our Support the end
of eating.

But, most certainly, if such a lesson of temperance had been necessary at
a table: our Clergy would have recommended it to all the Lay masters of
families; and not have disturbed other men's tables with such
unreasonable examples