Plac'd the third Story high in all her Luxury.
So the Sweet [110]Poet, whom I can never part with for his Love to this delicious Toil, and the Honour he has done me.
Verily, the infinite Plenty and Abundance, with which the benign and bountiful Author of Nature has ſtor'd the whole Terreſtrial World, more with Plants and Vegetables than with any other Proviſion whatſoever; and the Variety not only equal, but by far exceeding the Pleaſure and Delight of Taſte (above all the Art of the Kitchen, than ever [111]Apicius knew) ſeems loudly to call, and kindly invite all her living Inhabitants (none excepted) who are of gentle Nature, and moſt uſeful, to the ſame Hoſpitable and Common-Board, which firſt ſhe furniſh'd with Plants and Fruit, as to their natural and genuine Paſture; nay, and of the moſt wild, and ſavage too ab origine: As in Paradiſe, where, as the Evangelical [112]Prophet adumbrating the future Glory of the Catholick Church, (of which that happy Garden was the Antitype) the Wolf and the Lamb, the angry and furious Lion, ſhould eat Graſs and Herbs together with the Ox. But after all, latet anguis in herba, there's a Snake in the Graſs; Luxury, and Exceſs in our moſt innocent Fruitions. There was a time indeed when the Garden furniſh'd Entertainments for the moſt Renown'd Heroes, virtuous and excellent Perſons; till the Blood-thirſty and Ambitious, over-running the Nations, and by Murders and Rapine rifl'd the World, to tranſplant its Luxury to its new Miſtriſs, Rome. Thoſe whom heretofore [113]two Acres of Land would have ſatisfied, and plentifully maintain'd; had afterwards their very Kitchens almoſt as large as their firſt Territories: Nor was that enough: Entire [114]Foreſts and Parks, Warrens and Fiſh-Ponds, and ample Lakes to furniſh their Tables, ſo as Men could not live by one another without Oppreſſion: Nay, and to ſhew how the beſt, and moſt innocent things may be perverted; they chang'd thoſe frugal and inemptas Dapes of their Anceſtors, to that Height and Profuſion; that we read of [115]Edicts and Sumptuary Laws, enacted to reſtrain even the Pride and Exceſs of Sallets. But ſo it was not when the Peaſe-Field ſpread a Table for the Conquerors of the World, and their Grounds were cultivated Vomere laureato, & triumphali aratore: The greateſt Princes took the Spade and the Plough-Staff in the ſame Hand they held the Sceptre; and the Nobleſt [116]Families thought it no Diſhonour, to derive their Names from Plants and Sallet-Herbs; They arriv'd, I ſay to that Pitch of ingroſſing all that was but green, and could be vary'd by the Cook (Heu quam prodiga ventris!) that, as Pliny tells us (non ſine pudore, not without blushing) a poor Man could hardly find a Thiſtle to dreſs for his Supper; or what his hungry [117]Aſs would not touch, for fear of pricking his Lips.
Verily the Luxury of the Eaſt ruin'd the greateſt Monarchies; firſt, the Perſian, then the Grecian, and afterwards Rome her ſelf: By what Steps, ſee elegantly describ'd in Old [118]Gratius the Faliſcian, deploring his own Age compar'd with the former:
O quantum, & quoties decoris fruſtrata paterni!
At qualis noſtris, quam ſimplex menſa Camillis!
Qui tibi cultus erat poſt tot, ſerrane, triumphos?
Ergo illi ex habitu, virtutiſq; indole priſcæ,
Impoſuere orbi Romam caput:——
Neighb'ring Exceſſes being made thine own,