tbe BR>er 35 



the very water even, and, thanks to the mighty 

 influence of money, there are lines of demarka- 

 tion drawn in the very elements themselves. 

 Some persons are for drinking ice, others for 

 quaffing snow, and thus is the curse of the 

 mountain steep turned into an appetizing stim- 

 ulus for the palate ! Cold is carefully treasured 

 up for the summer heats, and man's invention 

 is now racked how best to keep snow freezing 

 in months that are not its own. Some again 

 there are who first boil the water, and then 

 bring it down to the temperature of winter ; 

 indeed, there is nothing that pleases man in the 

 fashion in which Nature originally made it. 



And is it the fact, then, that any herb of the 

 garden is reared only for the rich man's table ? 

 It is so but still let no one of the angered 

 populace think of a fresh secession to Mount 

 Sacer or Mount Aventine ; for to a certainty, in 

 the long run, all-powerful money will bring 

 them back to just the same position as they 

 were when it wrought the severance. For, by 

 Hercules! there was not an impost levied at 

 Rome more grievous than the market-dues, an 

 impost that aroused the indignation of the 

 populace, who repeatedly appealed with loud 

 clamors to all the chief men of the state to be 

 relieved from it. At last they were relieved 

 from this heavy tax upon their wares ; and then 



