XXVI. The truth is, if we are to speak out, that he is not only equal, but superior. Upon a superficial view, the rich man appears to be better accommodated, and exposed to fewer inconveniencies than the poor one, but if you search to the bottom, you will find the reverse. The rich man has great abundance, and variety of delicious eatables; but do they taste more savoury to him, than his common coarse food to the poor one? no, nor so savoury, for the appetite with which the poor man sits down to table, more than compensates, for the advantage derived to the rich one by his excess. Of what consequence is it to the bees of Lithuania, a rude and unpleasant country, that they have not such beautiful and odoriferous flowers to gather from, as the bees of other countries; if from their own trifling and unpleasing ones, they extract the sweetest and best-flavoured honey that is to be found in all Europe? The rich man lays himself down on a feather-bed, but does he sleep more, or better than a poor one on a truss of straw? You see that the poor man, always rises chearful and pleasant, and that the other, often complains of having passed an uneasy night. How many people slept sweetly on the hard ground, the same night, that king Ahasuerus not being able to take rest, was constrained to amuse himself with reading the annals of his Kingdom! The rich defend themselves from the rigours of cold, with thick walls, tapestry hangings, and furred garments; but observe, and you will find, that they complain more of the intemperance of the season, shut up within the walls of their palaces, than the shepherd covered with skins, on the heights of the mountain. David, when he was grown old, found it difficult to defend himself from the cold, with all the covering he could put on, when at the same time, many antient labourers, with half the cloathing, made light of the frosts. You will see at every turn, an opulent man trembling, and expressing his extreme sensations of cold, whenever he is obliged to leave the fire-side, while at the same time, the common people are passing chearfully along the street. The same difference is observeable in summer. The rich man is low spirited and oppressed with lassitude, and scarce ventures to go up stairs or down; while the common people, with alacrity and chearfulness, apply themselves to whatever falls in their way. So that what Dionysius of Sicily, said of the golden cloak, which covered the statue of Jupiter, by way of furnishing a pretence to plunder it, may be applied to the riches of opulent people; which was, that a cloth cloak was better, because the golden one in winter, did not defend him from the cold, and in summer, it fatigued him with its weight. The opulent man, inhabits a capacious and commodious palace, and never contented, he is always thinking of enlarging or improving it, but the thought of his habitation being too confined, scarce ever occurs to a poor man in the whole course of a year.