Whether he would have modified his statement, had he known something of
Bavarian beer-drinkers, I do not know; for, although these belong,
doubtless, in general, to the class of men which he designated as having
no purpose but simply "to be," yet they certainly have a decided
preference as to the means of their being, which must be beer; they have
activity enough to get where this can be obtained, and to handle the
needed quantity; and the man who holds and bears about fifteen or twenty
quarts a day must have no small share of the grace of passive endurance.
There is a class of the nobility too poor to treat themselves with the
diversions of court-life, and with notions of noble birth which forbid
them to engage in business, especially as they would thereby forfeit
their rank. They fund their small means, so as to yield them a stated
income; and in spending this and their time, they fall into a round
which brings them three or four times a day to some place where beer is
to be found, and with it a billiard-table and a reading-room. This class
does not, perhaps, embrace a very large number of the nobility, but it
is largely reinforced from others, whose small means are similarly
invested, and whose whole time is on their hands for disposal.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167