Chap. 19.] THE PLEASURES OF THE GARDEN. 151 



deep, and to seek each kind of oyster at the risk and peril of 

 shipwreck, to go searching for birds beyond the river Phasis 28 

 even, which, protected as they are by the terrors invented by 

 fable, 24 are only rendered all the more precious thereby to go 

 searching for others, again, in Numidia, 26 and the very sepul- 

 chres of ^Ethiopia, 26 or else to be battling with wild beasts, 

 and to get eaten one's self while trying to take a prey which 

 another person is to eat ! And yet, by Hercules ! how little do 

 the productions of the garden cost us in comparison with these ! 

 How more than suflicient for every wish and for every want ! 

 were it not, indeed, that here, as in every thing else, turn which 

 way we will, we find the same grounds for our wrath and in- 

 dignation. We really might be content to allow of fruits being 

 grown of the most exquisite quality, remarkable, some of 

 them for their flavour, some for their size, some, again, for the 

 monstrosities of their growth, morsels all of them forbidden to 

 the poor ! 27 We might allow of wines being kept till they are 

 mellowed with age, or enfeebled by being passed through 28 

 cloth strainers, of men, too, however prolonged their lives, 

 never drinking any but a wine that is still older than them- 

 selves ! We might allow of luxury devising how best to ex- 

 tract the very aroma, as it were, and marrow 29 only from grain ; 

 of people, too, living upon nothing but the choicest productions 

 of the confectioner, and upon pastes fashioned in fantastic 

 shapes : of one kind of bread being prepared for the rich, and 

 another for the multitude ; of the yearly produce of the field 

 being classified in a descending scale, till it reaches the humble 

 means of the very lowest classes but do we not find that 

 these refined distinctions have been extended to the very 

 herbs even, and that riches have contrived to establish points 

 of dissimilarity in articles of food which ordinarily sell for 

 a single copper coin ? 30 



In this department even, humble as it is, we are still des- 



23 He alludes to the pheasant. See B. x. c. 67. 



24 He alludes to Colchis, the country of Medea, the scene of the ex- 

 ploits of Jason and the Argonauts, and the land of prodigies and fable. 



25 Se. B. x. cc. 38 and 67. He alludes to " meleagrides," or Guinea- 

 fowls. 



26 See B. x. c. 37. He alludes to the hirds called " Memnonides." 



27 See B. xvii. c. 1. 28 See B. xiv. c. 28. 



29 He alludes to the finest and most delicate kinds of whe&ten flour. 

 See B. xviii. c. 29. 30 " Uno asse." 



