BOOK XIX. XIX. 52-55 



pleasure and Ibr plentv, did we not meet with the 

 sanie scandal in this as in everything else ! We 

 could no doubt have tolerated that choice fruits 

 forbidden to the poor because of thcir flavour or their 

 size or their portentous shape should be grown, that 

 wines should be kept to mature with age and robbed 

 of their viriUtv bv beiiig passed through strainers, 

 and that nobodv should live so long as not to be able 

 to drink vintages older than himseif, and that luxury 

 should also have long ago devised for itself a malted 

 porridge made from the crops and should Hve only on 

 the niarrow of the grain, as well as on the elaV)orations 

 and modelHngs " of the bakers' shops — one kind of 

 bread for mv lords and another for the common herd, 

 the vearly produce graded in so many classos right 

 down to the lowest of the low : but have distinctions 

 been discovered even in herbs, and has wealth 

 establishcd grades even in articles of food that sell 

 for a single copper? The ordinary public declares 

 that even among vegetables some kinds are grown 

 that are not for them, even a kale being fattened 

 up to such a size that there is not room for it on a 

 poor man's table. Nature had made asparagus to 

 grow wild, for anybody to gather at random ; but lo 

 and behold ! now we see a cultivated variety, and 

 Ravenna produces heads weighing three to a jiound. 

 Alas for the monstrosities of gluttony! It would 

 surjirise us if cattle were not allowed to feed on 

 thistles, but thistles* are forbidden to the k)wer 

 orders ! FiVen the water-supply is di vided into ch\sses. /."TMrj/ 0/ 

 and the power of money has made distinctions in the I™/)p/y; 

 very elements. Some people drink snow, others ice, '"^'"■«"«•« 

 and turn what is the curse of mountain regions into 

 pleasure for their appetite. Coolness is stored up 



455 



