Eating^ Drinking, and Sleeping. 248 



a notion adopted by the oinopholous Mosely, who, when 

 asked, *' What wine do you drink, Doctor?" answered, " Port 

 at home — claret abroad!" 



Hippocrates, the father of physic, recommends a cheerful 

 glass ; and Rhases, an ancient Arabian physician, says, no 

 liquor is equal to good wine. Reineck wrote a dissertation 

 *' De Potu Vinoso," and the learned Dr. Shaw lauded the 

 *' juice of the grape." But the stoutest of its medical advo- 

 cates was Tobias Whitaker, physician to Charles the Second, 

 who undertook to prove the possibility of maintaining life, from 

 infancy to old age, without sickness, by the use of wine* ! 



It must, however, be remembered, that Whitaker was cor- 

 dially attached to wine, and a greater friend to the vintner 

 than to the apothecary, having as utter a dislike to unpalat- 

 able medicines, as the most squeamish of his patients : there- 

 fore. Dr. Toby's evidence must be taken with caution, inde- 

 pendently of the courtly spirit that might have led him to 

 adapt his theories to the times. 



It has been questioned whether the use of wine was known 

 to the antediluvian world ; but there can be no doubt, in the 

 corrupt state of man, that wine would have its share in his 

 debasement, and it may be very strongly inferred, from the 

 circumstance that Noah planted a vineyard, and, moreover, 

 " that he drank of the wine, and was drunken" (Gen. ix. 20) 

 ►^a sad stain in the character of a man who was " perfect in 

 his generation ;" and which also proves that, in the earliest 

 period of the world, the very best of men were liable to fall 

 into error and excess. 



But the antiquity and propriety of wine-drinking is not 

 matter of question. The Archbishop of Seville, Antonio de 

 Solis, who lived to be 110 years old, drank wine; and even 

 that wonderful pattern of propriety, Cornaro, did the same : 

 but the question is about quantity. Sir William Temple was 

 pleased to lay down a rule, and limit propriety to three glasses. 

 " I drink one glass," says he, **for health, a second for refresh- 

 ment, a third for a friend ; but he that offers a fourth is an 

 enemy." 



As in eating, so in drinking, in the question of quantity— 



• " Tree of Human Life, or the Blood of the Grape." 1638. 



