OPSOPHAQ-T. 525 



Insulter par leurs oris sauTages 

 L'astre ^clatant de I'lmiverB. 

 Oris imptdsBaiia ! fureurs bizarres ! 

 Tandis que ces monstres barbares 

 Poussaient d'insolens clameurs, 

 Le Dieu, pourBuivant sa oarrifere, 

 Versait iin torrent de lumiere 

 Sur ses obsours blaspb^mateurs ! 



All those guilty extravagancies which so lately dis- 

 graced our grandfathers' dining tables ; those apple fights 

 {fj/rjXoiJui'x^La's) and orange factions which were familiar to 

 bachelor parties ia days gone^ let us hope^ never to re- 

 turn, equally disturbed, no doubt, the festive boards of an- 

 cient Greece and Rome; and young Cicero, who is accused 

 of having thrown a goblet at the head of Mark Antony, 

 is only one lively original actor, in classic times, of a 

 scene of as daily occurrence then as during the reign of 

 Bacchus and the regency of George IV., alike among the 

 sons of eminent statesmen and those of less dignified pa- 

 rentage. ^EK<f>epea-0ai, -ttotov, subaudi drunk, is a phrase 

 of which the English equivalent is well known ; and since 

 the action of wine upon the human brain must have been 

 at all times the same, the vigorous Unes ia which Crabbe 

 depicts the progress of temulency amongst a club of 

 topers at the Eed Lion of Aldborough, will apply equally 

 to the orgies of a Roman convivium, of a Greek syna- 

 gogue, or of a Bacchic festival any and everywhere : 



Wine, like the rising sun, possession gains. 

 And drives the mist of dulness from the brains ; 

 The gloomy yapour from the spirit flies, 

 And views of gaiety and gladness rise ; 

 StiU it proceeds, till from the glowing heat 

 The prudent cabnly to their shades retreat.* 

 Then is the mind o'eroast : in wordy rage 

 And loud contention angry men engage ; 



'AX\a (riif ravra 

 yivixTKav, fifj iriv olvov imep^oXabrfv, 



