EDWARD ANTILL 17 



Society for 1771, and it covers over eighty quarto 

 pages. Antill seems to have been inspired with a 

 patriotic devotion to the welfare of his country, and 

 his treatise bears the marks of that broad and pro- 

 phetic vision which is so characteristic of the latter 

 part of the last century. "Nothing but the love of 

 my country and the good of mankind," he writes, 

 "could have tempted me to appear and expose myself 

 to public view." "When I first undertook a vine- 

 yard," he explains, "I can without the least spark of 

 vanity say, I did it for the good of my country, and 

 from a principle of love to mankind ; I consider that 

 too many of the people of America were unhappily 

 drawn into great excesses in the use of distilled spirit- 

 uous liquors, which ruin their constitutions, and soon 

 render them unfit for the service of God and their 

 country, as well as for that of their own family and 

 friends. Wine, on the contrary, is a more homogene- 

 ous liquor, more wholesome, and much better adapted 

 to the spirit, and constitution of man; and although 

 men will run into excesses in the use of it, yet it 

 works itself off better, and does not destroy the natural 

 vital heat and animal spirits, in so great a degree and 

 in so sudden a manner, as fiery, distilled liquors do; 

 for these reasons I went on, and endeavoured to make 

 myself master of the subject, and by many experi- 

 ments to satisfy myself of the truth of things." It 

 was Antill's ambition, then, to grow grapes for wine 

 and not for eating. His treatise is founded largely 

 upon European practice, and there is only the most 

 meager reference to any American experience. He 

 still quotes Columella. He says in his introductory 

 letter that the industry is "yet new to America, though 



