University of Virginia Library

In all ages hath this propensity been the characteristic of human nature: for instance, in Egypt the fascinating Cleopatra swallowed her pearl; at Rome, gold dust served as powder for the heads of the great, and was scattered for sand upon the spacious arena, to be trampled on by gladiators, or prize fighters, and their kindred friends, bulls and wild beasts; and in our own country a courtezan, Kitty Fisher, to display her contempt for money, and turn the fool into ridicule who thought her favours were to be so cheaply purchased, swallowed, between two slices of bread and butter, the donation of a fifty pounds bank bill, which had been so presented to her: nay, all ranks have their ideas on this head; and sailors, when returned from a prosperous cruize, having exhausted every natural art that could be pursued to gratify their doxies, have even been known to fry twenty watches in a pan, that they might place an extravagant dish upon the table. But this tallies with the old saying, “Gotten like horses, and spent like asses.”

Who can possibly contemplate the life of the great and philosophical Lord Bacon, and not feel enhorrored at this most pernicious folly, which not only contaminates the base and illiterate mind, but when indulged in, as in the instance of this enlightened character, is capable of subverting every noble effusion, and trampling under foot the combined attributes of reason, study, and the most consummate science.