CHAPTER XVI. 



SOME of the most important circumstances in the 

 history of mankind have arisen out of their desire to 

 possess the luxuries of distant countries. This de- 

 sire has sometimes appeared to interfere with human 

 happiness, by engendering wars of commercial ri- 

 valry; but upon the whole it has steadily advanced 

 civilization by binding nations together by ties of 

 mutual interest. If we were to follow out this ob- 

 servation, the history of Spices, of Coffee, of Tea, of 

 Sugar, would form a large and instructive volume. 

 But we cannot so treat the subject here, whatever we 

 may do at some future time in accounts of nations 

 such as the Hindoos and the Chinese. We must 

 here content ourselves with a brief sketch of each 

 production, to complete our notice of ' Vegetable 

 Substances used for the food of man.' 



SPICES. 



THE plants which produce the more esteemed of 

 these are all natives of tropical climates; and, with 

 the exception of some of the capsicums, none of them 

 can be fruited in the open air in this country, nor can 

 the choicer sorts be brought to maturity even by artifi- 

 cial heat. These subtances are either simply hot and 

 acrid, in which case they get the name of peppers, or 

 they have aromatic flavour in addition; and when 

 they have this, they are called spices, though, in 

 some cases, the names are applied indiscriminately 

 to the same substance. 



