Luxury is a word of a very uncertain signification, and may be taken in a good as well as in a bad sense. In general, it means great refinement in the gratification of the senses, and any degree of it may be innocent or blameable, according to the age, or country, or condition of the person.
The bounds between the virtue and the vice cannot here be fixed exactly, more than in other moral subjects.
To imagine that the gratifying any of the senses, or the indulging any delicacy in meats, drinks, or apparel, is in itself a vice, can never enter into a head that is not disordered by the frenzies of enthusiasm.
I have, indeed, heard of a monk abroad who, because the windows of his cell opened upon a very noble prospect, made a covenant with his eyes never to turn that way, or receive so sensual a gratification. And such is the crime of drinking champagne or burgundy, preferably to small beer or porter.
Estas indulgencias solo son vicios cuando se persiguen a expensas de alguna virtud, como la liberalidad o la caridad; del mismo modo que son necedades cuando por ellas un hombre arruina su fortuna y se reduce a la indigencia y la mendicidad.
Cuando no menoscaban ninguna virtud, sino que dejan un amplio margen de donde proveer a los amigos, a la familia y a todo objeto adecuado de generosidad o compasión, son enteramente inocentes, y en todas las épocas han sido reconocidas como tales por casi todos los moralistas.
Entregarse por completo a los placeres de la mesa, por ejemplo, sin ningún gusto por los placeres de la ambición, el estudio o la