back from the officious bath
attendant till I found some one who could identify me, which only goes to
show that it is more profitable to rub up the member than it is to polish
the mind!" While Eumolpus was relating all this, I changed countenance
continually, elated, naturally, at the mishaps of my enemy, and vexed at
his good fortune; but I controlled my tongue nevertheless, as if I knew
nothing about the episode, and read aloud the bill of fare. (Hardly had
I finished, when our humble meal was served. The food was plain but
succulent and nutritious, and the famished scholar Eumolpus, fell to
ravenously.)

Kind Providence unto our needs has tempered its decrees
And met our wants, our carping plaints to still
Green herbs, and berries hanging on their rough and brambly sprays
Suffice our hunger's gnawing pangs to kill.
What fool would thirst upon a river's brink? Or stand and freeze
In icy blasts, when near a cozy fire?
The law sits armed outside the door, adulterers to seize,
The chaste bride, guiltless, gratifies desire.
All Nature lavishes her wealth to meet our just demands;
But, spurred by lust of pride, we stop at naught to gain our ends!

(Our philosopher began to moralize, when he had gorged himself, leveling
many critical shafts at those who hold every-day things in contempt,
esteeming nothing except what is rare.)

CHAPTER THE NINETY-THIRD.

("To their perverted taste," he went on,) everything one may have
lawfully is held cheap and the appetite, tickled only by forbidden
indulgences, delights in what is most difficult to obtain.

The pheasant from Colchis, the wild-fowl from African shores,

Because they are dainties, the parvenu's palate adores

The white-feathered goose, and the duck in his bright-colored plumes

Must nourish the rabble; they're common, so them Fashion dooms!

The wrasse brought from dangerous Syrtis is much more esteemed

When fishing-boats founder! And even the mullet is deemed,

No matter how heavy, a weight on the market! The whore

Displaces the wife; and in perfumes, the cinnamon more

Is esteemed than the rose! So whatever we have, we despise,

And whatever we have not, we think a superlative prize!"

"Is this the way in which you keep your promise not to recite a single
verse today?" I demanded; "bear in mind your promise and spare us, at
le