OPSOPHAaY. 531 



fail to observe the little weight attached by them to the 

 rules they laid down^ their ' brisk' bad example having 

 more weight with the world than their cold vapid pre- 

 cepts of propriety. 



Intemperance^ like all other human corruptions, took 

 time no doubt to develope and work, and for awhile men 

 had a reverence for the social board * which forbade ex- 

 cess either in eating or drinking ; but this sobriety did 

 not last long ; they began with ' a glass of innocent 

 Lesbian wine/ but, passing by quick degrees from ' gay 

 morality to easy vice,' soon came to drink like horses or 

 Scythians ;t and Bacchus, who under the epithet Sp0io<i 

 was at first approached in a straight line and adored as 

 an 'upright' god, J received at no very distant period 

 worship from votaries doubled up under the table. At 

 one time men found three cups enough, i. e. one for 

 health, one for cheerfulness, and one to sleep upon ; or, 

 as some explained this mystical number, one for each of 

 the three Graces ; afterwards, in anticipation of the ad- 

 vice of Queen Anne's poet, with regard to a very different 

 kind of haustus, guests seldom ' tasted' without ' drink- 

 ing deep.' A mistress's name became an excuse for lovers 

 to drink as many glasses as there were letters in her 

 dear name : thus the allowance which gallantry prompted 

 was 'for Nsevia six, for sweet Justina seven,' (Nsevia 



* A proper respect for the table seems to have been kept up 

 for a time, from a belief that the ' Coelioolse' occasionally partook 

 of the repast incog, as guests. 



+ We say, like a fish, which is still further from the truth ; for 

 to drink like a fish, is, in fact, to be more temperate than any 

 member of the Temperance Society, and not to drink at all. 



J Amphictyon, Eing of Athens, is reported to have learned 

 the art of mixing water with wine from Bacchus, which, as it en- 

 abled him and others to go to the jolly god's altar walking in a 

 straight line and in an upright posture \&p6ioi), gave origin to his 

 name (opdios). 



