138 
whofe talents we are enlightened, and 
whofe great actions ftimulate us to vir- 
tne, while they elevate our courage. 
It is impoffible, as I have already had 
occafion to obferve, to explain without 
a knowledge of archeology the different. 
fubjes reprefented by the arts; and it 
3s-equally impoflible, without fuch a re- 
fource, to judge folidly of the works of 
art. The immortal writings of Winckel- 
mann, of Mengs, and of Sulzer, have 
denionftrated how effentially neceflary this 
fcience is, in forming the tafte, and in 
acquiring a juft idea of the different de- 
grees of the beautiful and fublime. 
Laftly, what fatisfaétion can refult 
from travels, if the perfon who undertakes 
them is unable te appreciate the merit of 
_ the monuments diiperfed in the different 
countries through which he pafies ; and 
to infpe&t, with fome fhare of difcern- 
ment, the produétions of the living ar. 
tifts, together with the mufeums, cabi- 
nets, &c.? How, indeed, can he travel 
with advantage to himfelf and others, 
withoug a preliminary knowledge of the 
different branches of archeology? dj 
Thefe details aré fufficient to point 
evt the great utility of archeology, and 
to demonftrate that it is the moft inftruc- 
tive and moft amufing part of biftory. 
, (To be continued.) : 
Fo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
YO the information given by “ 4 Por- 
ter Drinker,’ in page 12 of your 
Jaft Number, allow me curforily to add a 
few particulars. . 
The elder Pliny fomewhere mentions 
beer as ufled by the Gauls; and, whether 
they borrowed the art of brewing from 
any other nation, or were folely indebted 
for it to their own ingenuity, the practice 
could not have been novel among them 
im Pliny’s day ; for the ufe of the liquor 
itfelf muft have been long known, before 
the drinkers of it learned to employ its 
feum (or yea/?) in fermenting their bread ; 
which Pliny fays that the Gauls did.— 
His words, if I rightly quote from memo- 
ry, are—‘* Galli cerevifie [puma panem 
Jermentant.* — This paflage naturally 
calls the attention to note the revolutions 
produced in arts and domeftic economy by 
accidental circumftances. Though the 
ule of yealt feems to have been general 
among the Gauls in Pliny’s time; yet, 
after the vine had been propagated 
thyough their country, and Baechus had 
friatched the cup from the hand of Ceres, 
yealt appears to have gradually fallen in- 
to difute sud oblivion ; fince, on an at- 
Dr. Carey on the Antiquity of Malt Liquors, [March ¥, 
tempt of the Parifian bakers, about 2 
couple of centuries ago, to introduce it a8 
anew improvement, a hue and cry was 
raifed againft it, as unwholefome and poi- 
forous ; and a grand confultation of phy- 
ficians was held, to determine on the pros 
priety or impropriety of fuffering it to be 
employed. : 
Virgil mentions beer a8 ufed by thé 
Scythians, and the northern nations in 
general— 
Pocula leti 
Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea forbis—— 
which words I cannot pafs over, without 
fubmitting to the judgement of better cri- 
tics than myfelf, whether, inftead of Fer. 
mento, we ought not to read Frumento, as 
in the paflage of Tacitus quoted by your 
correfpondent. “Fhe phrale, pocula vi- 
tea, isa marked expreffion ; and, in two 
of the three cafes, the poet points our, 
not the liquor itfelf, or the mode of pre~ 
paring it, but the natural produdiion from 
which it was derived. By the correc- 
tion, Frumento, we find h:s phrafeology 
perfectly uniform and confiftent, viz. 
that ¢* from corn and fruits they extraét- 
ed liquors which ferved as fubftitutes for 
the juice of the wine or grape.” Befides, 
what other paflage, in the whole compafs 
of Latinity, can be adduced to prove that 
fermentum was ever uled tu fignify fer- 
mented liquor, as it is here commonly in- 
terpreted > 
Earlier than Tacitus, Pliny, or Virgil, 
we find that Xenophon, in his “ 4zaba- 
fisy"* mentions beer, which he found 
among fome of the favage tribes througly 
whofe countries he paffed in the famous 
retreat of the ten thoufand. He cails it 
« barleywine—ov0g xpidwvogeand, accuf- 
tomed as his Greeks were to gocd wine 
from the grape, this barbaric liquor was, 
by his account, too flrong fox. them, un. 
lefs they tempered it with water——ss gen tg 
idwp emixest, or words to that effect, 
From his defcription of its ftrength, we 
might be tempted to confider this barley- 
ewine as fomething like the Scoth or Irifh 
whifkey, if he had not added the charac- 
teriltic circumftance of its carrying a high 
head of froth, which brings it nearer to, 
our modern beer. | 
The Jews too, it appears, were ac- 
quainted, in our Saviour’s time, with 
fome other inebriating liquor befides wine 5 
fince we find the angel, in the gofpel, pre-= 
diéting that John the Baptift fhould not 
drink either wine or “* SIKERA.”” Leav- 
ing to learned Orientalifts to determine. 
whether that jskera was beer, cider, or 
whifkey, I think highly probable, that, 
from their intercourfe with the me Micra 
the 
