e feet; this is the case of infancy; thence it ascends to the
middle region, where it continues a long while, and there produces in my
mind the only true pleasures of the corporal life; at last exhaling
itself like a vapour, it moves upwards, till it comes to the throat,
and there it makes its last little stay[5]."

Athenaeus, after Theophrastus, says, That wine drives away those irksome
inquietudes to which old people are unhappily subject[6]. And to
conclude, the divine Plato assures us, that, "Wine is a medicine as well
for the body as the mind, the dryness of old people have great occasion
for this kind of moistening, and their severe genius of the brisk gaiety
inspired by wine, without which they would not be able to perform their
part in the concert, and consequently would be no longer useful members
in the commonwealth, which is no other ways supported and preserved than
by harmony."

[Footnote 1: Lucret. lib. iii.]

[Footnote 2: Vinum lac senum.]

[Footnote 3: Vina calidi innati pabula.]

[Footnote 4: AEtas meo frigore contenta est.]

[Footnote 5: Essays, lib. ii. cap. 2.]

[Footnote 6: Lib. xi. cap. 7.]

CHAP. V.

THAT WINE CREATES WIT.

As wine increases the quantity of animal spirits, by the fumes which it
sends to the brain, it is easy to comprehend that it cannot but be of
great advantage to dull and heavy wits; so that one may particularly
apply to them the common proverb, "Wine sets an edge to wit[1]." And the
emblem of Adr. Junius, in which he represents Bacchus as a youth with
wings on, and with this inscription, "Wine kindles wit[2]," agrees
admirably well with these people. But the application of both proverb
and emblem is no less just in relation to all the world; for it is most
certain, that the god Bacchus, by warming the thoughts, renders them
more acute, and inspires a greater plenty of witty sallies. For "Bacchus
had not the name of Lysian, or Opener, if I may use the term, bestowed
upon him for nothing but purely because he opens the mind, by putting it
into an agreeable humour, and renders it more subtile and judicious[3]."
For this reason it is grown into a proverb, That water-drinkers are not
near so knowing as those who drink wine[4].

Plutarch assures us, That wine collects and increases the powers of the
mind. He observes also, That it produces excellent effects on the minds
of persons, who, though naturally timid, want no penetration. Plato