very trite saying that
riches do not bring happiness; and certainly luxury, which riches can
command, does not bring content, which is the greatest of all pleasures.
On the contrary, the moment the body or mind is over-indulged in any way,
it immediately demands more of the same indulgence, and even in stronger
doses. Who does not know that too much wine makes one desire more? Who,
after reading a novel, does not feel a longing for another?

The rich and poor dog, as we all know, meet and discourse of these things
in Burns's poem--

"Frae morn to e'en it's naught but toiling
At baking, roasting, frying, boiling,
An', tho' the gentry first are stechin,
Yet e'en the hall folk fill their pechan
With sauce, ragouts, and sic like trashtrie,
That's little short of downright wastrie.
An' what poor cot-folk pit their painch in
I own it's past my comprehension."

To which Luath replies--

"They're maistly wonderful contented."

Caesar afterwards describes the weariness and ennui which pursue the
luxurious--

"But human bodies are sic fools,
For all their colleges and schools,
That, when nae real ills perplex 'em,
They make enow themselves to vex 'em.
They loiter, lounging lank and lazy,
Though nothing ails them, yet uneasy.
Their days insipid, dull, and tasteless;
Their nights unquiet, lang, and restless,
An' e'en their sports, their balls and races,
Their gallopin' through public places,
There's sic parade, sic pomp, an' art,
The joy can scarcely reach the heart."

After this description the two friends

"Rejoiced they were not men, but dogs."

An Italian wit has defined man to be "an animal which troubles himself
with things which don't concern him"; and, when one thinks of the
indefatigable way in which people pursue pleasure, all the while deriving
no pleasure from it, one is filled with amazement. "Life would be very
tolerable if it were not for its pleasures," said Sir Cornewall Lewis,
and I am satisfied that half the weariness of life comes from the vain
attempts which are made to satisfy a jaded appetite.

There are many things which are not luxuries _per se_, but become so if
indulged in to excess. Take, for instance, smoking and drinking. One
pipe a day and one glass of wine a day are not luxuries, but a great many
a day are luxuries. So lying in bed five minutes after you wake is not a
luxury, but so lying for an hour is. The