524 PROSE HALIEUTICS. 



chus enrolled bards among satyrs and faunSj the sweet 

 Muses have been somewhat vinous in the morning.' 

 The sages were as bad as the poets ; amongst those ad- 

 dicted to this immorality, Cato of Utica is particu- 

 larly mentioned as passing whole nights a la Porson, 

 not in emending Greek, but in fuddhng his brain with 

 Falemian. Philosopher Xenocrates got a gold crown 

 from Dionysius for drinking a whole gallon, before him, 

 at a single draught : and Philosopher Anacharsis, whilst 

 entertained by Periander at Corinth, claimed the prize 

 at a dxinking-match for being drunk the first, saying that 

 was the end proposed, and he consequently, as foremost 

 at the goal, ought in fairness to carry away the cup. 

 Plato may even be said to have given a rule for drunken- 

 ness, when at marriage feasts he particiilarly recommends 

 the bride and bridegroom to keep from tippling, for the 

 sake of the children, who ought to be begotten in sobriety, 

 and especially by instrucljing us that it is incorrect, oii 

 irpeirei,, to be drunk except at the feast of the god who 

 gave the wine. The excellent and moral Seneca thought 

 that there were some griefs which nothing but deep 

 drinking would drown : of course the removal of such 

 sorrows would afford a pretext equally strong for flying 

 to the wine-skin ; and a remarkable instance of this oc- 

 curs in the ' Antigone,' where the opening chorus, in a 

 sublime address to the sun, as he is seen magnificently 

 rising just after the departure of an invading army from 

 before the wall of Thebes, winds up a lofty rhapsody by 

 exhorting their feUow-citizens to go the round of all the 

 temples in succession, but first to begin the morning's 

 festivities by getting drunk. Such an insult offered in 

 fiiU quire to the God of Day, recalls a noble passage 

 from one of Le Franc Pompignan's odes : 



Le Nil a tu but ses rivages 

 Les noirs habitans des deserts 



