hey.
These days of ours the fatal sisters spin,
To consecrate to love and wine,
Let's now, e'er 'tis too late begin.
Alas! without these pow'rs divine
What should one do with a vain useless thread?
What does it aught avail to breathe and move?
One had as good be dead,
Much better be no more, than not to drink and love."

I shall close this chapter with one of the Anacreontic odes of the
famous Monsieur La Motte, author of the _Fables Nouvelles_, lately
translated into English under the title of "_Court Fables_."

"Buvons, amis, le temps s'enfuit,
Menageons bien ce court espace.
Peut-etre une eternelle nuit
Eteindra le jour qui se passe.

Peut-etre que Caron demain
Nous recevra tous dans sa barque,
Saisissons un moment certain.
C'est autant de pris sur la parque.

A l'envi laissons-nous saisir,
Aux transports d'une douce ivresse:
Qu'importe si c'est un plaisir,
Que ce soit folie ou sagesse."

"Let's drink, my friends, time flies away,
Let's husband well this little space;
For what we know, this very day
May to eternal night give place.

Let's snatch from Fate one certain minute,
Perhaps to-morrow Charon's wherry,
May every mother's son take in it,
And waft us o'er the Stygian ferry.

In giddy transports without measure
With wine lets drown all melancholy.
No matter if it be a pleasure,
Whether 'tis wisdom call'd, or folly."

[Footnote 1: Elle est, comme disent les Arabes, la fleur et
l'esprit de la sante vive et remuante.]

[Footnote 2: Interpone tuis interdum gaudia curis.]

[Footnote 3: Seneca de Tranquilitate.]

[Footnote 4: Histoire de Sept Sages, &c. p. 137.]

[Footnote 5: Chap. 34.]

[Footnote 6: Lib. 10. cap. 10.]

[Footnote 7: Reflex. sur les Morts Plais. p. 22.]

[Footnote 8: P. 609.]

[Footnote 9: P. 699.]

[[Footnote 9a: Catullus V.1-6 ("Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque
amemus")]]

CHAP. II.

THAT WINE DRIVES AWAY SORROW AND EXCITES MIRTH.

Of all the means proper to drive away sorrow, and excite mirth in the
minds of men, wine is certainly the most agreeable and efficacious.

For in the first place it banishes all manner of cares, and makes us
entirely forget them, producing the same effect as the waters of the
River Lethe on those souls which were destined to enter into other
bodies.

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