CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 53

knowledge; their historians hardly enter into anydetail concerning a subject of such subordinateimportance in their political system , and it ismostly from brief hints, detached facts, and inci-dental observations, that we can gather informa-tion concerning it *.

In every age, it has been a commerce of luxury,rather than of necessity, which has been carriedon between Europe and India. Its elegant manu-factures , spices, and precious stones, are neitherobjects of desire to nations of simple manners, norare such nations possessed of wealth sufficient topurchase them. But at the time the Romans becamemasters of the Indian trade , they were not only(as I have already observed) in that stage of societywhen men are eager to obtain every thing thatcan render the enjoyment of life more exquisite,or add to its splendor, but they had acquired allthe fantastic tastes formed by the caprice and extra-vagance of wealth. They were of consequencehighly delighted with those new objects of gratifi-cation with which India supplied them in suchabundance. The productions of that country, na-tural as well as artificial, seem to have been muchthe same in that age as in the present. But the tasteof the Romans in luxury differed in many respectsfrom that of modern times, and of course theirdemands from India differed considerably from ours.

In order to convey an idea of their demands ascomplete as possible,' I shall in the first place makesome observations on the three great articles of

' See NOTE XX.

e 3

SECT.

II.