22<y On the Cultivation of the Vine, 



Lacedemonian youth. By a Jaw of Carthage, the ufe of 

 wine was prohibited in the time of war. Plato interdicted 

 it to young perfons below the age of twenty-two. Ariftotle 

 did J he lame to children and nurfes. And we are informed 

 by Pal mar i us that the laws of Rome allowed to priefts, or 

 ♦hofe employed in the facrifices, but three i'mall glafles of 

 at their repairs. 

 But, notwith (landing the wifdom of laws, the hideous 

 picture of intemperance, and the fatal confequences with 

 which it. is attended, the attractions of wine have been fo 

 powerful among certain nations, that their fondnefs for it 

 has degenerated into a palhon and real want. Wfc daily fee 

 men, prudent in other refpects, gradually acquire the habit 

 of indulging immoderately in the uk of this liquor; and in 

 their wine extinguiih their moral faculties and their phyfical 

 ft renin h. 



o 



Narratur et prifci Catonis, 

 Saepe mero incaluifle virtus. 



We learn from hiftory, that Wenceflas, king of Bohemia 

 and of the Romans, having come to France to negotiate a 

 treaty with Charles VI. repaired to Rheims in the month of 

 May 13977 where he got intoxicated every day with the wine 

 of the country, choofmg rather to forego everything than 

 not indulge in this excefs*. 



The virtue of wine differs according to its age. New wine 

 is flatulent, indigeftible, and purgative : muflum flat uofum et 

 ccmco&u difficile. Unum in fe bonum continet y quod ahum 

 emolliat. Vinum rarum injrigidat ', — muflum crajji Jucci ejl, 

 et Jrigidi. 



The antrents confounded thefe words — mujlum et novum 

 virmm. Ovid fays, Qui nova mujla bibatit. Unde virgo 

 mnjla diela ejl pro intatta et novella. 



Light wines only can be drunk before they have grown 

 old. The reafon we have mentioned in the preceding pages. 

 The Romans, as we have obferved, followed this cuftom, 

 and drank their wines in fucceffion : Vinum Gauranum et 

 Albanum y et qua; in Sabinis et in Tu/cis nafcuntur, et Amie- 

 num quod circa Neapolmi vicinis collibus gignitur. 



New wines are not at all nourifhing, especially thofe which 

 are aqueous, and little faccharine : carport alimentum fubge- 

 runt pauciffimum, lays Galen. 



Thefe wines readily produce intoxication ; and the reafon 

 of this is, the quantity of carbonic acid with which they are 

 charged. This acid, by difengaging itfelf from the liquor 



* Observations fur TAgriculture, vol. ii. p. 192. 



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