34 Gbe <3ar&en 



marrow 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 mul- 

 titude ; 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? 



In this department, even, humble as it is, we 

 are still destined to find certain productions that 

 are denied to the community at large, and the 

 very cabbages pampered to such an enormous 

 extent that the poor man's table is not large 

 enough to hold them. Asparagus, by Nature, 

 was intended to grow wild, so that each might 

 gather it where he pleased but, lo and behold ! 

 we find it in the highest state of cultivation, and 

 Ravenna produces heads that weigh as much 

 as three pounds even ! Alas for the monstrous 

 excess of gluttony ! It would be surprising in- 

 deed, for the beasts of the field to be forbidden 

 the thistle for food, and yet it is a thing forbid- 

 den to the lower classes of the community ! 

 These refined distinctions, too, are extended to 



