Hang up the rudder in the smoke at ease,
And let the mules’ and oxen’s labor cease;[167]
but much rather the impertinent labor of goldsmiths, turners,
perfumers, and cooks, when thou resolvest wisely and soberly to banish
all useless things.
But if the things that suffice nature lie in common among those
that have and those that want riches,—if rich men pride themselves
only in things superfluous, and thou art ready to praise Scopas of
Thessaly, who, when one begged somewhat of him he had in his house, as
a superfluous thing he had no use for, made answer, “But we rich men
count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not
in those necessary things,”—if your case be thus, have a care you do
not seem like one that magnifies and prefers a pomp and public show at
a festival before life itself.
Our country’s feast of Bacchus was in old time celebrated in a more
homely manner, though with great mirth and jollity. One carried in
procession a vessel of wine and a branch of a vine, afterwards followed
one leading a goat, another followed him bearing a basket of dried
figs, and after all came a phallus. But all these are now despised and
out of date, the procession being made with golden vessels and costly
garments, driving of chariots and persons in masquerade. And just thus
the things that are necessary and useful in riches are swallowed up by
those that are unprofitable and superfluous.
9. The most of us commit the mistake of Telemachus. For he through
inexperience, or rather want of good taste, when he saw Nestor’s house
furnished with beds and tables, garments and carpets, and well stored
with sweet and pleasant wine, did not look upon him as so happy a man
in being thus well provided with things necessary and useful; but when
he beheld the ivory, gold, and amber in Menelaus’s house, he cried out
in amazement:—
Such, and not nobler, in the realms above,
My wonder dictates is the dome of Jove.[168]