USES OF WINE. 163 



dor, and to enable us to begin larger sympathies and associations 

 from a state in which the feelings are warm and plastic. A fourth 

 use is, to save the resources of mental excitement by a succedaneous 

 excitement of another kind, or to balance the animation of the soul 

 by the animation of the body, so that life may be pleasant as well 

 as profitable, and the pleasure be reckoned among the profits. A 

 fifth use is, to stimulate thoughts, and to reveal men's powers to 

 themselves and their fellows, for in vino Veritas, and intimacy is 

 born of the blood of the grape. But is it not unworthy of us to 

 pour joy's aid from a decanter, or to count upon " circumstances" 

 for a delight which the soul alone should furnish ? Oh, no ! for by 

 Grod's blessing the world is a circumstance ; our friends are circum- 

 stances ) our wax-lights and gaieties likewise j and all these are 

 stimuli and touch the being within us ; and where then is the limit 

 to the application of art and nature to the soul ? At least, however, 

 our doctrine is^ dangerous ; but then fire is dangerous, and love is 

 dangerous, and life with its responsibilities is very dangerous. All 

 strong things are perils to one whose honor's path is over hair- 

 breadth bridges and along giddy precipices. A sixth use is, to make 

 the body more easily industrious in work times. This is the test of 

 temperance and the proof of the other uses. That wine is good 

 for us which has no fumes, but which leaves us to sing over our 

 daily labors with ruddier cheeks, purer feelings and brighter eyes 

 than water can bestow. The seventh use is, in this highest form of 

 assimilation, to symbolize the highest form of communion, according 

 to the Testament which our Saviour left, and to stand on the altar 

 as the representative of spiritual truth. All foods, as we have 

 shown before, feed the soul, and this, on the principles of a universal 

 symbolism : this then is the highest use of bread and wine — to be 

 taken and assimilated in the ever-new spirit of the kingdom of 

 heaven. 



The corollary that we draw, is, that total abstinence contains 

 no universal argument ; that it is an admirable strait-waistcoat for 

 many of us ) that abstinence is a needful discipline for every one 

 at the most of times, and then coincident with temperance ; but 

 that moreover wine is an indispensable gift of heaven, and the use 

 of it to the sane an inalienable matter of private judgment, into 



