Its aim, in all cases that concern our subject, is to have what others cannot have.One of the most perfect instances of it ever exhibited was when Cleopatra caused a very precious pearl to be dissolved, that she might consume it at a draught.There could be here no pleasure in the taste of the liquor, that must have been rather disagreeable; the gratification consisted in having drank what no one else could afford to drink.The son of the famous Roman actor performed a similar feat.(89)We learn from Pliny (90) that it became a sort of fashion at Rome as it seems to have been in the East.(91)But it is seldom that this feeling fixes itself upon objects that gratify it alone, on objects solely desirable from the difficulty of obtaining them, and from the consequent superiority which their possession implies.
It rather prefers such as have also qualities capable of gratifying other desires, or ministering to other pleasures.The amount, however, of these other wants supplied by the objects it covets is often very small; if this be large enough to distinguish them from matters altogether useless, it seems very frequently sufficient for its purpose.The extravagances of the table in which the Romans indulged were of this sort.The enjoyment afforded by the articles consumed must evidently have arisen, almost altogether, from the high price they cost.A dish of nightingale's brains could scarcely be a very delicious morsel, yet Adam Smith quotes from Pliny the price paid thr a single nightingale as about £66.£80 were given for a surmullet.According to Suetonius, no meal cost Vitellius less than £2000.The clamous prices paid thr various articles of dress and furniture could have proceeded alone from the promptings of similar desires.
Thus Adam Smith reckons the cost of some cushions of a particular sort used to lean on at table, at £30,000.
The things to which vanity seems most readily to apply itself are those of which the use or consumption is most apparent, and of which the effects are most difficult to discriminate.Articles of which the consumption is not conspicuous, are incapable of gratifying this passion.The vanity of no person derives satisfaction from the sort of timber used in the construction of the house he occupies, because the wood work is usually concealed by paint or something else.Again: if the effects produced by it can be ascertained with accuracy, the object seldom affords the means of sufficiently marking superiority.Thus coal is consumed for the heat given out by it, and the different quantities of heat yielded by different qualities of coal are easily ascertained.One scarcely, therefore, prides himself on burning one sort, in preference to another.It is not equally easy to ascertain how much the marble of which his chimney is composed exceeds, or comes short, in the beauty, the variety, and arrangement, of its colors, the same sort of material made use of, for similar purposes, by his neighbors Fancy here, stimulated by vanity, may raise the one more or less over the other, and according, therefore, to the strength of the passion will the assumed superiority be greater or less.Few things have qualities better fitted for the gratification of this passion than liquors.Their peculiar flavors and tastes are sufficient to distinguish them, and yet afford no room to determine how much the one exceeds the other.The imagination, also, seems to have a peculiar power over the organs of taste and smell, and to be able, through the instrumentality of habit, to bring them to receive pleasure from what at first was indifferent, perhaps even disagreeable.
Hence it is impossible to set any bounds to the superiority which one may acquire over another, from the influence of this passion; and it may almost be laid down as a general rule with regard to them, that any one that is at all drinkable, becomes fit for being placed at the tables of the luxurious, by being carried a sufficient distance from the place of its manufacture.
Thus, during the peninsular war, London porter was largely consumed in Spain by the very classes who, in England, reckon it a mark of vulgarity to drink it at all.
It is not, indeed, to be disputed, that the rarity and costliness of the liquors, and other similar commodities consumed by an individual, may heighten greatly the absolute pleasure he derives from them.This arises from a trait in the character of man, which we have every day opportunities of observing.The attention is always roused in a greater degree by an object, when it excites more than one faculty.Two flowers together, the one having the beauty without the scent of the rose, and the other its scent without its beauty, would.not afford so much pleasure as that plant.
We prefer fruit that has a fine color; it absolutely tastes better.The taste is quickened by the additional stimulus which the eye's being caught by the beauty of the color gives to the sensation, in the same way as a blow, long expected, is felt more than one coming unawares.In a similar manner, the mere costliness of wines, or meats, rouses the sense to a keener perception of pleasure, by awakening the vanity; and, when the individual is conscious of being a connoisseur in such matters, this very potent mover of our thoughts and sentiments is, besides, excited by the discernment shown in the discrimination, and by the familiarity thence implied with rare wines and meats, and, consequently, with what is called the best society.
