THE VINE AND CIVILISATION. 21 
raised its architectural magnificences in the same valley where 
the celebrated Shiraz is gathered; so that always and every- 
where, under the green branches of tke vine, civilisation 
flourishes. 
‘*T would turn you from the prospect of these unfortunate 
regions, defiled and subjected as they are, to the leaden yoke 
of Mahomet. The false prophet, desiring to substitute fatal- 
ism in place of moral liberty, forbid the use of wine, and 
quickly the intelligence of his disciples suspended its progress, 
like a clock when you arrest the motion of its pendulum. Is 
there a more striking proof of the influence of wine on human 
activity ? 
‘* This passage from life to death was effected in silence. 
To-day, on the ruins of the cities called Babylon, Damascus, 
Jerusalem, Memphis, Constantinople, the Turk, crouched on 
his carpet, armed to the teeth, surrounded by terror-stricken 
slaves, who stuff his narguily with tobacco and opium, ex- 
tends his stupefying visuals over a desert country. What has 
become of these happy civilisations, flourishing under the 
influence of agriculture, of commerce, of men of science, of 
poets and of artists? Alas, alas! they have forever disap- 
peared, with the vineyards that covered the soil. 
‘« There are, nevertheless, some few countries of Asia Minor 
that produce, by the hands of Jews and Arminians, but in 
small quantities, some excellent wines. We have the wine of 
Angora, of Isnic, and especially that of Scala Nova, raised on 
the ruins of Ephesus; this last was, in the most remote times, 
known under the name of Prammian. Homer informs us that 
Hecameda prepared, by the direction of Nestor, a copious po- 
tion of this wine for Machaon, when he had been wounded in 
the shoulder. 
‘A detailed and comparative study of Egypt, and of ancient 
