1 86 Notes and Gleanings. 



Pure Wines : what and where are they ? — It seems your Ohio cor- 

 respondent cannot rest contented with being refuted at every point in argu- 

 ment (as to practical tests, to which I have challenged them so often, my oppo- 

 nents ignore them altogether, as they well know they would tell against them), 

 but is determined to put himself on a level with the man who protested against 

 the use of lightning-rods because it was interfering with the decrees of Provi- 

 dence. He thanks me for making the admission, "that the best wine is in the 

 hands of Him who has rain and sunshine at his command, and who alone is the 

 giver of all good and perfect gifts." He also presumes "that wine-makers gen- 

 erally are not so willing to put their trust in Him." I think he is slightly mis- 

 taken. I think there are as many, nay, perhaps more, among the wine-makers 

 who put their trust in Him, as among any other profession. "Wine maketh 

 glad the heart of man," especially good w\nt ; and the glad and joyous heart is, 

 I take it, more disposed to trust in God, to thank him for all his bounty and 

 goodness, than a melancholy and despondent one. But, while we trust in him, 

 we do so not blindly, but understandingly. I believe that he has not alone 

 given me the juice of the grape, differing as it does in the proportions of its 

 component parts every year, but he has also given me reason., that most noble 

 of all gifts, which raises man high above other creatures, and makes him the 

 lord of creation. And I further believe that he has given me that reason to use; 

 and if, by the use of my reasoning faculties, I find a deficiency in the grape- 

 juice in certain seasons, or in certain varieties of grapes, I should forthwith go 

 to work and remedy these deficiencies to the best of my knowledge by adding 

 those ingredients in which the grape is deficient, provided they form component 

 parts of the grape-juice already. If the grape does not contain sugar enough, 

 I add more ; if it contains too much acid, I add sugar and water, both compo- 

 nent parts of.grape-juice, to tone down and dilute the acid. Where is the harm 'i I 

 only try to make it as perfect as possible, using the reason God has given me ; 

 and Mr. McCullough must allow me to believe that I make a better use of my 

 reason, the most sublime gift of God, in doing so, than he does of his by leaving 

 his grape-juice in its imperfect state. 



But further : I contend that the Catawba, and also Ives's Seedling, that pet 

 grape of Mr. McCullough, will, in no season, make as good a wine without the 

 addition of sugar and water as they will with such addition. Even in the very 

 best seasons, they contain too much tannin and acid, and will make a better and 

 more wholesome wine by being galleyed than without it. If we followed the 

 doctrine so lucidly advocated by Mr. McCullough — " to leave alone," whether 

 good or bad, perfect or imperfect, and that we commit a sin if we do other- 

 wise " — to its utmost consequences, where would it lead .'' The same doctrine 

 would compel us to eat raw potatoes instead of boiling them ; for God certainly 

 gave the potato to us in its raw state. We ought to build no mills ; for God 

 gave us the wheat, not the flour ; and we are wickedly interfering with his 

 will if we grind the wheat, and bake bread of it. Nay, the very process of mak- 

 ing wine at all is a sin, according to his doctrine : for God gave us the grape; 

 why, then, make it into wine ? It would be a sin, according to this doctrine, to 

 tak? medicine in case of sickness ; for God sent the disease, and it would be 



