Eating f Drinking, and Sleeping, 247! 



est le lait des vieillards," says a French doctor ; and so Hora<:e 

 before him : — 



Tu senum nutrix querelas benigno 

 Lacte titillas. 



A Greek physician recommended it to Alexander as the pure 

 blood of the earth. 



Though an excess in wine is highly blameable, yet it is more 

 pardonable than most other excesses. The progressive steps 

 to it are cheerful, animating, and seducing ; the melancholy 

 are relieved, the grave enlivened, the witty and gay inspired — 

 which is the very reverse of excess in eating : for, Nature 

 satisfied, every additional morsel carries dulness and stupidity 

 with it. " Every inordinate cup is unbless*d, and the ingredient 

 is a devil,*' says Shakspeare. 



*' King Edgar, like a king of good fellows,'* adds Selden, 

 '* or master of the revels, made a law for Drinking. He gave 

 orders that studs, or knobs of silver or gold (so Malmesbury 

 tells us), should be fastened to the sides of their cups, or 

 drinking vessels, that when' every one knew his mark or 

 boundary, he should, out of modesty, not either himself covet, 

 or force another to desire, more than his stint." This is the 

 only law, before the first parliament under King James, that 

 has been made against those swill-bowls. 



Swabbers of drunken feasts, and lusty rowers. 

 In full-brimmed rummers that do ply their oars, 



** who, by their carouses (tippling up Nestor's years as if they 

 were celebrating the goddess Anna Perenna), do, at the same 

 time, drink others' health, and mischief and spoil their own 

 and the public." 



Amongst other reasons for taking a little wine, a French 

 gentleman offers the following : — " Un amateur de bon vin 

 faisait jadis ce joyeux raisonnement a son confesseur, qui le 

 gourmandait sur son penchant a boire, en lui annon^ant qii'il 

 ne ferait jamais son salut, s'il ne se corrigeait de cette passion : 

 * Mon pere, le bon vin fait du bon sang ; le bon sang produit 

 la bonne humeur ; la bonne humeur fait naitre les bonnes 

 pensees ; les bonnes pensees produisent les bonnes ceuvres ; 

 et les bomies oeuvres conduisent I'homme dans le ciel. 



