ing once a month at least[13].

[Footnote 1: _Voluptates ut mel summo digito degustandae non plera
manu sumendae._ Dionys. Sophron. apud Philostr.]

[Footnote 2: Mad. Deshoul. t. ii. ep. p. 104.]

[Footnote 3: Div. Lec. de P. Messie, part ii. ch. 15.]

[Footnote 4: Hofman, t. ii. 9 dissert. ch. 6.]

[Footnote 5: Bocal, an Italian word, and signifies a pot or jug
holding about three pints.]

[Footnote 6: Synopses Theolog. Pract.]

[Footnote 7: Essays, lib. ii. cap. 2.]

[Footnote 8: Satir.]

[Footnote 9: Boileau.]

[Footnote 10: The names of two jesuits, the former a famous
preacher, and the other as famous a casuist.]

[Footnote 11: Esprit de Pat. p. 51.]

[Footnote 12: Owen, Ep.]
[[John Owen (1564-1622): _possibly_ I.ii.42.]]

[Footnote 13:
Qu'il faut a chaque mois.
Du moin s'enyvrer une fois.
Fureteriana.]

CHAP. IV.

THAT OLD PEOPLE OUGHT TO GET DRUNK SOMETIMES.

Wine taken with some excess is excellent for old people.

---- Ubi jam validis quassatum est viribus aevi
Corpus et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus[1].

When shaken by the powerful force of age
The body languid grows, and ev'ry joint
Its proper juice exhal'd, all feeble droops.

And is not the reason plain? because it moistens their dry temperament,
and nourishes their radical moisture. Hence came the proverb, which
says, "That wine is the milk of old men[2]." Tirellus, in his history,
declares the same thing, when he says, "That wine is the nutriment of
natural heat[3]." Conformably to this truth that old man acted, of whom
Seneca makes mention, who being pressed to drink wine cooled in snow,
said, "That his age made him cold enough, and that he did not desire to
be more cold than he was[4]." Than which, certainly no answer could be
more just and true.

Besides, the infirmities of an advanced age require some consolation and
diversion. Let us see what Montaigne says, who was not much given to
tippling; for he plainly says, that his gout and complexion were greater
enemies to drunkenness than his discourse. His words are these, "The
inconveniencies attending old age, which stand in need of some support
and refreshment, might with reason produce in me a desire of this
faculty, since it is as it were the last pleasure that the course of
years steals from us. The natural heat, say the boon companions, begins
first at th