The slight, and, to another person perhaps, scarcely perceptible relish which the contents of the glass, or the dish, leaves on the palate, is seized and dwelt upon, and being associated and wrought up with more exciting and intellectual delights, is fixed in the mind of the sentimental epicurean as something infinitely surpassing what he would otherwise have conceived of it.Had pearls, when dissolved in vinegar, produced a beverage that the imagination could possibly bare transformed into a delicacy, how would it not have been extolled by the Romans!
The general consumption of any commodity by the vulgar lessens, on the contrary, in many minds, the pleasure it would otherwise give.It brings down the individual, in this particular, to a level with the lowest.This feeling gave rise to the exclamation of a once celebrated northern Dutchess, "What a pity that eggs were not a sixpence the piece."The Roman moralists and satirists ground many of their invectives against the extravagance of the times, on the want of connexion between the qualities of the articles and time estimation in which they were held.(92) Heliogabolus confessed, that it was the relish which time dearness of the dishes gave to them, that led to the extravagance of his table, and liked to have the price of his food overrated, because this sharpened his appetite.
Were proofs wanting of how very slight grounds the taste has for its judgment, in declaring this to be delicious, and that beneath notice, we might find them in its variations in different times and places.It seems only conteny in preferring what is expensive.Yet, however different, each society in perfect sincerity believes its system the best.Who could relish now-a-days a Roman feast? Certainly, however, they believed that in cookery, as in other arts, they had attained the summit of real perfection.Of their good faith in this belief they gave a singular instance.A very expensive and much esteemed sauce was made by them out of the probably half rotten entrails of certain fish.(93) So convinced, however, were they of its superlative delicacy, that they had the care to make a formal law specially prohibiting its being given or sold to the barbarians.(94) They were seriously fearful lest, should these rude warriors only taste it, it might so highly gratify their appetite, as to bring them down at once upon the empire.They came, notwithstanding, but neither they nor their more polished descendants seem to have found particular charms in the garum.
We find the estimation of every article, whether of dress, of furniture,:
or of equipage, if to be seen by many, regulated also, in a very great degree, by the gratification it affords this passion."With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches; which, in their eyes, is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves.In their eyes,; the merit of an object, which is in any degree either useful or beautiful, is greatly enhanced by its scarcity, or by the great labor which it requires to collect any considerable quantity of it; a labor which nobody can afford to pay but themselves.Such objects they are willing to purchase at a higher price than things more beautiful and useful, but more common." (95) Though its influence now, perhaps, is not so great as it was among the ancients, it is yet more apparent.The progress of art has been such, that there is scarcely any material, or fabric, or color, the production of which it does not so much facilitate as to bring it within the reach of a large mass of consumers.It then loses its value as a distinction, and ceases to serve the purposes of vanity.Hence arises the necessity for the variety, and seeming caprice, of fashion.What Adam Smith applies to one class of articles, will apply, in a great measure, to the whole expenditure of the:
opulent."When by the improvements in the productive powers of manufacturing art and industry, the expense of any one dress comes to be very moderate, the variety will naturally be very great.The rich, not being able to distinguish themselves by the expense of any one dress, will naturally endeavor to do so by the multitude and variety of their dresses." (96)To attempt to enumerate the modes in which fashion varies the fitness of things for the purposes of its rotaries, were little profitable, and is, I apprehend, superfluous, its extended influence will hardly be disputed.
"What is the cause," demands Mr.Storch, (97) "that gives so high a value to the rare jewels with which opulence loves to deck itself? Is it the pleasure they give the eye, by the brilliancy of their reflected light? No; that slight enjoyment has no relation to their value; it is because they attest the wealth of him who wears them.
Such are all the objects of this sort of luxury: the amount of enjoyment they give through the direct medium of the senses is nothing, in comparison of that which they yield by the display that can be made of them to others -- even objects which seem by their nature to have no other end but to please the senses, are almost altogether estimated by the gratification this display produces.Consider a sumptuous repast given by opulence, separate from it, in thought, every thing that serves only to show the riches of him who gives it, and leave nothing absolutely on the table but what may gratify the appetite of the individual: what would remain? In short, if we take a general survey," continues the same author, "of all that expenditure which is made after the natural desires are satisfied, we will perceive that it is almost altogether occasioned by the desire to appear rich." (98) This desire of appearing superior to others thus keeps a vast number of things in a state of ceaseless revolution.All this domain is under the rule of fashion.
Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis.
