CHAP. XI.] CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 361 



wine, to a fifth of the wine ; and, therefore, 

 when a man has taken down a bottle of Port or 

 of Madeira, he has nearly half a pint of ardent 

 spirits in him. And yet how many foolish mo 

 thers give their children Port wine to strengthen 

 them! 1 never like your wine-physicians, though 

 they are great favourites with but too many pa 

 tients. BONIFACE, in the Beaux Stratagem, 

 says that he has eaten his ale, drunk his ale, 

 worked upon his ale, and slept upon his ale, 

 for forty years, and that he has grown fatter 

 and fatter; but, that his wife (God rest her 

 soul!) would not take it pure: she would 

 adulterate it with brandy; till, at last, finding 

 that the poor woman was never well, he put 

 a tub of her favourite by her bedside, which, 

 in a short time, brought her " a happy release" 

 from this " state of probation," and carried 

 her off into the " the world of spirits" Whether 

 Boniface meant this as a pun, I do not know ; 

 for, really, if I am to judge from the practice of 

 many of the vagrant fanatics, I must believe, 

 that, when they rave about the spirit's entering 

 them, they mean that which goes out of a glass 

 down their throat. Priests may make what 

 they will of their devil; they may make him 

 a reptile with a forked tongue, or a beast with 

 a cloven hoof; they may, like Milton, dress 



