If you care not for the carnal pleasures in Apician gastronomy--for _gulam_,--if you don't give a fig for philology, there still is something healthy, something infinitely soothing and comforting--"educational"--in the perusal of the old book and in similar records.
When we see Apicius, the famous "epicure" descending to the very level of a common food "fakir," giving directions for making Liburnian oil that has never seen that country....
When we note, with a gentle shudder, that the grafters of Naples, defying even the mighty Augustus, leveled the "White Earth Hill" near Puteoli because an admixture of plaster paris is exceedingly profitable to the milling profession....
When Apicius--celebrated glutton--resorts to the comparatively harmless "stunt" of keeping fresh vegetables green by boiling them in a copper kettle with soda....
When we behold hordes of ancient legislators, posing as dervishes of moderation, secretly and openly breaking the prohibition laws of their own making....
When we turn away from such familiar sights and, in a more jovial mood, heartily laugh at the jokes of that former mill slave, Plautus (who could not pay his bills) and when we wonder why his wise cracks sound so familiar we remember that we have heard their modern versions only yesterday at the Tivoli on State Street....
When, finally, in the company of our respected Horatius we hear him say in the slang of his day: _Ab ovo usque ad mala_, and compare this bright saying with our own dear "From Soup to Nuts."...
Then we arrive at the comforting conclusion that we moderns are either very ancient and backward or that indeed the ancients are very modern and progressive; and it is our only regret that we cannot decide this perplexing situation to our lasting satisfaction.
Very true, there may be nothing new under the sun, yet nature goes on eternally fashioning new things from old materials. Eternally demolishing old models in a manner of an economical sculptor, nature uses the same old clay to create new specimens. Sometimes nature slightly alters the patterns, discarding what is unfit for her momentary enigmatic purposes, retaining and favoring that which pleases her whimsical fancy for the time being.