Kind Providence unto our needs has tempered its decrees And met our wants, our carping plaints to still Green herbs, and berries hanging on their rough and brambly sprays Suffice our hunger's gnawing pangs to kill. What fool would thirst upon a river's brink? Or stand and freeze In icy blasts, when near a cozy fire? The law sits armed outside the door, adulterers to seize, The chaste bride, guiltless, gratifies desire. All Nature lavishes her wealth to meet our just demands; But, spurred by lust of pride, we stop at naught to gain our ends! (Our philosopher began to moralize, when he had gorged himself, leveling many critical shafts at those who hold every-day things in contempt, esteeming nothing except what is rare.) CHAPTER THE NINETY-THIRD. ("To their perverted taste," he went on,) everything one may have lawfully is held cheap and the appetite, tickled only by forbidden indulgences, delights in what is most difficult to obtain. The pheasant from Colchis, the wild-fowl from African shores, Because they are dainties, the parvenu's palate adores The white-feathered goose, and the duck in his bright-colored plumes Must nourish the rabble; they're common, so them Fashion dooms! The wrasse brought from dangerous Syrtis is much more esteemed When fishing-boats founder! And even the mullet is deemed, No matter how heavy, a weight on the market! The whore Displaces the wife; and in perfumes, the cinnamon more Is esteemed than the rose! So whatever we have, we despise, And whatever we have not, we think a superlative prize!" "Is this the way in which you keep your promise not to recite a single verse today?" I demanded; "bear in mind your promise and spare us, at least, for we have thrown no rocks at you yet. If a single one of those fellows drinking under this very roof were to smell out a poet in their midst, he would arouse the whole neighborhood and involve all of us in the same misunderstanding!" Giton, who was one of the gentlest of lads, took me to task for having spoken in that manner, denying that I did rightly in criticising my elders and at the same time forgetting my duties as host by offering an affront to one whom I had invited out of kindness. And much more, full of moderation and propriety, which was in exquisite keeping with his good looks. CHAPTER THE NINETY-FOURTH.