ing either well or
happily. From which it follows, not indeed that pleasure is not pleasure,
but that pleasure is not the chief good. Nor was Laelius, who, when a young
man, was a pupil of Diogenes the Stoic, and afterwards of Panaetius, called
a wise man because he did not understand what was most pleasant to the
taste, (for it does not follow that the man who has a discerning heart
must necessarily have a palate destitute of discernment,) but because he
thought it of but small importance.

O sorrel, how that man may boast himself,
By whom you're known and valued! Proud of you,
That wise man Laelius would loudly shout,
Addressing all our epicures in order.

And it was well said by Laelius, and he may be truly called a wise man,--

You Publius, Gallonius, you whirlpool,
You are a miserable man; you never
In all your life have really feasted well,
Though spending all your substance on those prawns,
And overgrown huge sturgeons.

The man who says this is one who, as he attributes no importance to
pleasure himself, denies that the man feasts well who refers everything to
pleasure. And yet he does not deny that Gallonius has at times feasted as
he wished: for that would be speaking untruly: he only denies that he has
ever feasted well. With such dignity and severe principle does he
distinguish between pleasure and good. And the natural inference is, that
all who feast well feast as they wish, but that it does not follow that
all who feast as they wish do therefore feast well. Laelius always feasted
well. How so? Lucilius shall tell you--

He feasted on well season'd, well arranged--

what? What was the chief part of his supper?

Converse of prudent men,--

Well, and what else?

with cheerful mind.

For he came to a banquet with a tranquil mind, desirous only of appeasing
the wants of nature. Laelius then is quite right to deny that Gallonius had
ever feasted well; he is quite right to call him miserable; especially as
he devoted the whole of his attention to that point. And yet no one
affirms that he did not sup as he wished. Why then did he not feast well?
Because feasting well is feasting with propriety, frugality, and good
order; but this man was in the habit of feasting badly, that is, in a
dissolute, profligate, gluttonous, unseemly manner. Laelius, then, was not
preferring the flavour of sorrel to Gallonius's sturgeon, but merely
treatin