"If I were rich," said a poor
farmer's boy, "I would eat fat pudding, and ride all day on a gate;"
which was evidently his highest idea of human luxury. But it is less
with the quality of our indulgences, than their extent, that I have
now to treat. Diogenes, who prided himself on cutting his coat
according to his cloth, and thought himself a greater man, in
proportion as he diminished his wants, placed his luxuries in idleness
and sunshine, and seems to have relished these enjoyments with as much
sensuality as Plato did his fine house and delicate fare. Even he was
more reasonable than those sectarians, who have prevailed in almost
all religions, and who, believing that the Deity created man for the
express purpose of inflicting upon him every species of torture, have
inveighed against the most innocent gratifications, and have erected
luxury into a deadly sin. These theologians will not allow a man to
eat his breakfast with a relish; and impute it as a vice if he smacks
his lips, though it be but after a draught of water. Nay, there have
been some who have thought good roots and Adam's ale too great
luxuries for a Christian lawfully to indulge in; and they have
purposely ill-cooked their vegetables, and mixed them with ashes, and
even more disgusting things, to mortify the flesh, as they called
it--i.
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