What Nature adds beſides is Luxury.
They could then make an honeſt Meal, and dine upon a Sallet without ſo much as a Grain, of Exotic Spice; And the Potagere was in ſuch Reputation, that ſhe who neglected her Kitchen-Garden (for that was ſtill the Good-Woman's Province) was never reputed a tolerable Huſ-wife: Si veſpertinus ſubitò te oppreſſerit hoſpes, ſhe was never ſurpriz'd, had all (as we ſaid) at hand, and could in a Trice ſet forth an handſome Sallet: And if this was Happineſs, Convictus facilis ſine arte menſa (as the Poet reckons) it was here in Perfection. In a Word, ſo univerſal was the Sallet, that the [120]Un-bloody Shambles (as Pliny calls them) yielded the [121]Roman State a more conſiderable Cuſtom (when there was little more than honeſt Cabbage and Worts) than almoſt any thing beſsides brought to Market.
They ſpent not then ſo much precious time as afterwards they did, gorging themſelves with Fleſh and Fiſh, ſo as hardly able to riſe, without reeking and reeling from Table.
[122]——Vides ut pallidus omnis
Cœna deſurgat dubia? quin corpus onuſtum
Heſternis vitiis, animum quoque prægravat unà,
Atque affigit humo divinæ particulam auræ.
See but how pale they look, how wretchedly,