£ 482 ] 
LETTER FIRST, TO THE EDITdR. 
QUJ1DAM DE VINO. ON WINE. 
j&cclesiasticua ch. xxxi. v. 27, 28, 29. u Wine is good as life 
*i to a man if it be drank moderately : what is life then to a man 
« that is without wine ? for it was made to make man glad. Wine 
« measurably drank, and in season, bringeth gladness of the heart, 
« and cheerfulness of the mind ; but drunken with excess, maketh 
u bitterness of the mind, with brawling and quarrelling.” 
I could produce many parallel passages to the above, from books 
of still higher authority than the wisdom of the son of Sirach.- 
The history of Noah, the fable of Abimelech, the marriage of Ca- 
na, the disputation in Esdras, <kc. are all authorities to shew, 
that the moderate use of wine, even for convivial purposes, has re- 
ceived the highest sanction that authority can give it ; and they 
shew too, that we are not called upon to renounce the gratifica- 
tions of appetite, when they can be enjoyed with prudent restraint^ 
and without injury to ourselves or to others. 
Having then presented you, my friend, with some preliminary 
Observations that bear upon the science of good eating, permit me 
to offer you some remarks that lead to the science of good drink- 
ing : for like Castor and Pollux they are strongly allied to each 
other, and when the dishes set, the decanters rise. 
I shall not dwell upon the wines of the ancients, the Falernian, 
the Formian, the Cae cuban, the Massican, the Calenum, the Auli- 
cum, the Lycean, the Chian, the Egyptian (Maroeoticum) the 
Sabinum— » for we know too little about them except that they 
were generally estimated somewhat in the order here mentioned 
as we find from Horace’s vile fiotabis tnodicis Sabinum cantharis t 
and some other odes. Some wine has been found at Herculaneum 
and Pompeii, but not enough in quantity, or in a state to judge of 
its quality. 
In fact, the ancients knew little on the subject ; they had no 
System that I can find of keeping their wine : they had no glass 
bottles, their wine was kept, in casks, in jars, or in leather bottles,* 
I do not precisely know without more search than the subject is 
worth, what were the distinctions between the Testa , the Cadus , the 
Lagena , the Amfihora , in which they kept their wine : or between 
the Amfiulla , the Urceus , the Cantliarus , the Diota , the Ciborea % 
* This explains the scripture passage, “ For what man putleth new win© 
into old bottles ?’* Their new wine being apt to ferment. 
