The denunciation of pleasure-seeking is very rightly suspect for it is itself so often the seeking of the basest of pleasures. I mean the pleasure of being shocked, the pleasure of being censorious-in a word, the pleasure of scandal. But there are criticisms of modern pleasure-seeking which are not merely the scandal-mongering of old women, which is a permanent temptation of men as they grow old. There are criticisms that rest on reasonable and eternal principles. And one of them, I think, is this-that so many modern pleasures aim at indiscriminate and incongruous combination. They are colors that kill each other. For instance, it is not greedy to enjoy a good concert. But I do think there is something greedy about expecting to enjoy the dinner and the concert at the same time. I say trying to enjoy them, for it is the mark of this sort of complex enjoyment that it cannot be enjoyed. The fashion of having very loud music during meals in restaurants and hotels seems to me a perfect example of this chaotic attempt to have everything at once and do everything at once. Eating and drinking and talking have gone together by a tradition as old as the world; but the entrance of this fourth factor only spoils the other three. It is an ingenious scheme for combining music to which nobody will listen with conversation that nobody can hear. Recall some of the great conversations of history and literature; imagine some of the great and graceful impromptus, some of the spontaneous epigrams of the wits of the past; and then imagine any of them shouted through the deafening uproar of a brass band. It seems to me an intolerable insult to a musical artist that people should treat his art as an adjunct to a refined gluttony. It seems a yet more subtle insult to the musician that people should require to be fortified with food and drink at intervals, to strengthen them to endure his music. I say nothing of the deeper and darker insult to that other artist the cook. In any case it is the combination of the two pleasures that is unpleasant.( This is a good passage that I read and good for practice)