In no meal has luxury
advanced more upon the model of the ancients than in this: the dinners
(_caenae_) of the Romans were even more luxurious, and a thousand times more
costly, than our own; but their breakfasts were scandalously meagre; and,
with many men, breakfast was no professed meal at all. Galen tells us that
a little bread, and at most a little seasoning of oil, honey, or dried
fruits, was the utmost breakfast which men generally allowed themselves:
some indeed drank wine after it, but this was far from being a common
practice. [Footnote: There is, however, a good deal of delusion prevalent
on such subjects. In some English cavalry regiments, the custom is for the
privates to take only one meal a day, which of course is dinner; and by
some curious experiments it has appeared that such a mode of life is the
healthiest. But at the same time, we have ascertained that the quantity of
porter or substantial ale drunk in these regiments does virtually allow
many meals, by comparison with the washy tea breakfasts of most
Englishmen.]
The Emperor Pius died in his seventieth year. The immediate occasion of
his death was--not breakfast nor _caena_, but something of the kind.
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