The hospitality of the lower stages of civilization[225-9] must be ascribed as well to this peculiar kind of luxury as to mere good nature. Arabian chiefs have their noon-day table set in the street and welcome every passer-by to it.[225-10] (_Pococke._) And so, distinguished Indians keep an open cauldron on the fire cooking all the time, from which every person who comes in may help himself. (_Catlin._) Compared with this luxury of the rich, the poverty found side by side with it appears less oppressive. There is no great gap between the modes of life of the different classes.[225-11] This is the golden age of aristocracy, when no one questions its legitimateness. When, later, the nobleman, instead of keeping so many servants, begins to buy costly garments for himself, he, indeed, supports indirectly just as many and even more men; but these owe him nothing. Besides, in this last kind of luxury, it is very easily possible for him to go beyond his means, which is scarcely ever the case in the former.[225-12] [Footnote 225-1: Here, as a rule, the value of the metal was greater than the form-value; and hence the medieval monasteries frequently made loans of silver vessels, where of course, the form could not be taken into consideration. On the other hand, in the case of the table service, presented by the king of Portugal to Lord Wellington, the metal cost £85,000 and the workmanship £86,000. (_Jacob_, Gesch. der edlen Metalle, translated by Kleinschrod, II, 5.) Compare _Hume_, History of England, ch. 44, App. 3. Similarly under Louis XIV. (_Sismondi_, Hist. des Français, XXVII, 45.) When Rome was highly civilized, C. Gracchus paid for very good silver ware, 15 times the value of the metal, and L. Crassus, (consul 95 before Christ) 18 times its value. _Mommsen_, R. Gesch. II, 383.] [Footnote 225-2: _Specimen breviarii fiscalium Caroli Magni_; compare _Anton_, Gesch. der deutschen Landwirthsch. 244 ff.] [Footnote 225-3: _Turner_, History of the Anglo Saxons, VII, ch. 6.] [Footnote 225-4: In _Homer_, the kings live on nothing but meat, bread and wine: compare _Athen._, I, 8. In the saga-poetry of Iceland, _H. Leo_ does not remember to have heard any other food mentioned except oat-pap, milk, butter and cheese, fish, the flesh of domestic animals, and beer. (_Raumer's_ Taschenbuch, 1835, 491)]