Chap. 2.] 
THE NATUBE OF THE YINE. 
217 
nothing reflects a higher merit upon the magistrate and the 
general than a large estate, since the being destitute of heirs'* 
has begun to confer upon persons the very highest power and 
influence, since legacy-hunting^ has become the most lucrative 
of all professions, and since it has been considered that the 
only real pleasures are those of possessing, all the true enjoy- 
ments of life have been utterly lost sight of, and all those arts 
which have derived the name of liberal, from liberty,'' that 
greatest blessing of life, have come to deserve the contrary 
appellation, servility alone being the passport to profit. 
This servility each one has his own peculiar way of making 
most agreeable, and of putting in practice in reference to 
others, the motives and the hopes of all tending to the one 
great object, the acquisition of wealth : indeed, we may every- 
where behold men even of naturally excellent qualities pre- 
ferring to foster the vicious inclinations of others rather than 
cultivate their own talents. We may therefore conclude, by 
Hercules ! that pleasure has now begun to live, and that life, 
truly so called, has ceased to be.^ As to ourselves, however, 
we shall continue our researches into matters now lost in ob- 
livion, nor shall we be deterred from pursuing our task by the 
trivial nature^ of some of our details, a consideration which 
has in no way influenced us in our description of the animal 
world. And yet we find that Yirgil, that most admirable 
poet, has allowed this to influence him, in his omission to enlarge 
upon the beauties of the garden ; for, happy and graceful poet 
as he is, he has only culled what we may call, the flower of 
his subject: indeed, we find that he has only named in all 
some fifteen varieties of the grape, three of the olive, the same 
number of the pear, and the citron of Assyria, and has passed 
over the rest in silence altogether. 
(2). With what then ought we to begin in preference to the 
vine, the superiority in which has been so peculiarly con- 
5 He alludes to the legacy-hunters with which Rome abounded in his 
time. They are spoken of by Seneca, Tacitus, and Juvenal, in terms of 
severe reprobation. 
6 This seems to be the meaning of " captatio much like what we call 
" toadying," or toad-eating.'* 
The liberales artes," were those, the pursuit of which was not con- 
sidered derogatory to the dignity of a free man, 
^ Vita ipsa desiit. 
9 Humilitas. In the Georgics. 
