Chapter LXXXIV: Section CCXXVI: Luxury in Barbarous Times

The luxury of that uncivilized age shows itself for the most part on particular occasions, and then all the more ostentatious, while in the periods following it, it rather permeates the whole of life. Even J. Möser excuses our forefathers for their mad celebration of their _kirmesses_ and carnivals: _dulce est desipere in loco_, as Horace says, and that they sometimes carried it to the extent of drowning reason.[226-1] Among ourselves, the common man drinks brandy every day; in Russia, seldom, but then, to the greatest excess.[226-2] The well known peculiarity of feudal castles, that, besides one enormous hall, they were wont to have very small and inconvenient rooms for every day life, is accounted for in part by the great importance to them of festal occasions, and in part by the cordiality of the life led in them, in which lord and servants constituted one family. Nothing can be more erroneous than to ascribe great temperance in general to people in a low stage of civilization. Their simplicity is a consequence of their ignorance rather than of their self-control. When nomadic races have once tasted the cup of more delicate enjoyment, it is wont to hurry them to destruction.[226-3]

[Footnote 226-1: _Möser_, Patr. Ph. IV, 7. On the feast of
fools and the feast of asses of the middle ages, compare
_Dutillet_, Mémoire pour sevir à l'Histoire de la Fête des
Fous; _D. Sacchi_, Delle Feste popolari del medio Evo.
During the latter half of the 16th century, the first
Hannoverian minister received only 200 thalers salary and
pieces of clothing, while the wedding of a certain von
Saldern cost 5,600 thalers. (_Spittler_, Gesch. Hannovers,
I, 333.)]

[Footnote 226-2: _v. Haxthausen_, Studien, II, 450, 513.
Thus, in 1631, of those who had died suddenly, there were
957 who died of drunkenness. (_Bernouilli_, Populationistik,
303.) According to _v. Lengefeldt_, Russland im 19. Jahrh.,
42, the number is now 1,474 to 1,911 per annum. On Poland,
see _Klebs_, Landeskulturgesetzgebung in Posen, 78. When the
South American Indians begin to drink, they do not stop
until they fall down senseless. (_Ulloa_, Noticias
Americanas, ch. 17.) The old Romans considered all
barbarians to be drunkards. (_Plato_, De Legg., I, 638.) In
eating, also, uncivilized people are extremely irregular. A
Jackute or Tunguse consumes 40 pounds of meat; three men
devour a whole reindeer at a meal. (_Cochrane_, Fussreise,
156.) One ate in 24 hours the back quarter of a large ox, or
1/2 a _pud_ of fat, and drank an equal quantity of melted
butter. (_Klemm_, Kulturgeschichte, III, 18.) Similarly
among hunting races. See _Klemm_, I, 243, 339; II, 13, 255.
On the South Sea Islanders, see _Hawkesworth_, III, 505;
_Forster_, I, 255.]

[Footnote 226-3: Rapid degeneration of almost all barbaric
dynasties as soon as they have subjugated civilized
countries.]