How to Make an Outline (Part 2)...

Hosts and Guests

Outline

Thesis Statement: In practice, no, there cannot be any absolute division of makind into any two categories, hosts and guests, but psychologically a guest does not cease to be a guest when he gives a dinner, nor is a host when he accepts one.

Introduction: The ancient Romans did not use two different words for guests and hosts as we do in English language. Every host has a guest in him and vice versa. There is not only circumstantial but also temperamental difference between hosts and guests.

I.                   No distinction between hosts and guests

A.    One word for both in Ancient Rome

B.     Vagueness of English language

1.      Language a reflection of climate

2.      Hosts and guests: two entities

II.                Two instincts in man

A.    Positive instinct, i.e., showing hospitality

B.     Negative instinct, i.e., accepting hospitality

1.      Labeling two people who eat together

2.      Roles that reflect temperaments

III.             Writer a host by nature

A.    To give and to receive

B.     To read and to write

1.      Blessed to give than to take

2.      Sense of duty in hosts

3.      Admiration in guestish spirit

C.     Good qualities in guests

D.    Bad qualities in hosts

IV.             The instinct of hospitality

A.    Animals deprived of qualities of host

1.      Non-entertaining caveman

2.      Enlightened families of Stone Age

B.     Hospitality, an earlier development; Guestish spirit, a later development

1.      A family extending dinner invitations

2.      A guest smelling danger

C.     Hospitablity, not wholly altruistic

D.    Driving force of a host

1.      Pride

2.      Egoism

V.                Hospitability, a suspicious act

A.    Fear of a primitive guest

B.     Concern of modern guest

1.      Jael’s treachery

2.      Odysseus and Circe

3.      Palazzo Borghese

4.      Macbeth

VI.             Hospitality and climate

A.    Kind visitors of Scotland and America

B.     Less entertaining French and Italians

C.     Hospitality, a mutual bsiness

VII.          Guests and hosts: no psychological difference

A.    The guestish psyche

B.     The hostish psyche

1.      Hospitability directly proportional to  agreeableness

2.      Amount of entertaining proportional to conscience\

VIII.        Circumstances and characters

A.    Conventionally, rich give and poor receive

B.     In reality, not all hosts are rich

1.      Coin’s master

2.      Sausage rolls

C.     Hosts dominate

IX.             Guests growing into hosts

A.    Relative experience of a host

B.     Hospitality with circumstances

1.      Expensive restaurants

2.      Cheap hotels

X.                Payment by cheque

A.    A guest who is habitual host

B.     A host who is guest against his will

C.     His place at the head of his table

1.      Old Wardle

2.      Coin’s master

XI.             Hospitality stands between churlishness and ostentation

A.    Good guestship

B.     Rediating gratitude

1.      Dante

2.      Mr. Smurge

Conclusion: When I lived in London, I was nothing as a host, but I will not claim to have been a perfect guest.