Know, Master Jacques, you and people like you, that a table
overloaded with eatables is a real cut-throat; that, to be the true
friends of those we invite, frugality should reign throughout the
repast we give, and that according to the saying of one of the
ancients, "We must eat to live, and not live to eat."
HAR. Ah! How well the man speaks! Come near, let me embrace you for
this last saying. It is the finest sentence that I have ever heard in
my life: "We must live to eat, and not eat to live." No; that isn't
it. How do you say it?
VAL. That we must eat to live, and not live to eat.
HAR. (_to_ MASTER JACQUES). Yes. Do you hear that? (_To_
VALERE) Who is the great man who said that?
VAL. I do not exactly recollect his name just now.
HAR. Remember to write down those words for me. I will have them
engraved in letters of gold over the mantel-piece of my dining-room.
VAL. I will not fail. As for your supper, you had better let me manage
it. I will see that it is all as it should be.
HAR. Do so.
JAC. So much the better; all the less work for me.
HAR. (_to_ VALERE). We must have some of those things of which it
is not possible to eat much, and that satisfy directly. Some good fat
beans, and a pate well stuffed with chestnuts.
VAL. Trust to me.
HAR. Now, Master Jacques, you must clean my carriage.
JAC. Wait a moment; this is to the coachman.
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