14 THE VINE AND CIVILIZATION. 
health, and on the moral life of mankind, that it is of no little 
importance and utility to study the culture of the vine, and 
the parallel social circumstances that have always accompanied 
it. In the earlier ages of the world, everywhere where the 
earth permitted, man succeeded in procuring the means of sub- 
sistence ; from that time the human species formed themselves 
into two distinct races— the one that drank wine, and those 
that were deprived of it. The race that cultivated the vine 
maintains itself in its native unity, morally and physically, by 
the continued use of a vivifying drink, that from infancy to old 
age rejoices the heart of man, calms his cares of life, revives his 
hopes, dissipates his fears, increases his strength, and imparts 
_ to his genius a marvellous sagacity. 
‘¢ Like truth, this race has remained one: time and circum- 
stances of climate have not changed its typical characteristics ; 
whilst the race that dwells beyond the vine-bearing limits, and 
where the vine ceases to grow—given up to the aberrations of 
taste, to all the sickly depravity of a stomach deprived of its 
natural excitement—has taken to drinking, here a decoction of 
burnt barley, there infusions of tea or saffron; the juice of 
apples, of cherries, of pears, of gooseberries; the distillation 
of fermented barley, oats, maize, &c. It was under the varied 
and deadly influence of these strange liquids that sub-races 
were formed, numerous and uncomely as their manners are 
uncouth. 
‘** We can only study civilization in short periods, attested 
by authentic documents. Beyond 4,000 years the history of 
mankind, as well as that of the vine, is lost—oblivious in the 
shades of the past. The first figure that dawns on the twilight 
of time is Bacchus, the young and brilliant conqueror from: 
India; barbarians became civilized on his passage to Europe; 
the tigers themselves come and do homage to the conqueror, 
