WEALTH AND PROGRESS. 31 



tuary laws Italian luxuries continued to pour in, and 

 national prosperity continued to increase. At the 

 present day the income of a nation affords a fair cri- 

 terion of its intellect and also of its strength. It may 

 safely be asserted that the art of war will soon be 

 reduced to a simple question of expenditure and credit, 

 and that the largest purse will be the strongest arm. 

 As for luxury, a small tradesman at the present day 

 is more luxurious than a king in ancient times. It 

 has been wisely and wittily remarked that Augustus 

 Caesar had neither glass panes to his windows, nor a 

 shirt to his back ; and, without exaggeration, the lux- 

 ury of the Roman senators may be compared with that 

 of the West Indian Creoles in the last century. The 

 gentleman and his lady glittered with jewels ; the table 

 and sideboard blazed with plate ; but the house itself 

 was little better than a barn, and the attendants a crowd 

 of dirty, half naked slaves who jostled the guests as 

 they performed the service of the table and sat down 

 in the verandah over the remnants of the soup before 

 they would condescend to go to the kitchen for the 

 fish. 



In the modern world we find luxury the harbinger 

 of progress ; in the ancient world the omen of 

 decline. But how can this be ? Nature does not 

 contradict herself; the laws which govern the move- 

 ments of society are as regular and unchangeable as 

 those which govern the movements of the stars. 



Wealth is in reality as indispensable to mankind for 

 purposes of growth as water to the soil. It is not 

 the fault of the water if its natural circulation is inter- 

 fered with ; if certain portions of the land are drowned 

 while others are left completely dry. Wealth in all 

 countries of the ancient world was artificially- confined 



