the Creator, God,--wine is
enumerated among the richest of his blessings bestowed upon man.
'He causeth the grass to grow,' says the Psalmist, 'for the cattle,
and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out
of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil
to make his face to shine, and bread that strengtheneth man's
heart.'

"But, while wine was thus classed among the choicest comforts and
necessaries of life, the cautions and injunctions against the
inordinate use of it are repeated and multiplied in every variety
of form. 'Wine is a mocker,' says Solomon (Prov. 20:1); 'strong
drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.'
'He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man; he that loveth wine
and oil shall not be rich.' (21:17.) 'Who hath woe? who hath
sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds
without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry _long_ at
the wine; they that go _to seek_ mixed wine. Look not thou upon the
wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it
moveth itself aright,'--say, like sparkling Champagne.--'At the
_last_ it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine
eyes shall behold strange wonders, and thine heart shall utter
perverse things; yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the
midst of the sea, or as he that lieth on the top of a mast. They
have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have
beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it
yet again.' Never was so exquisite a picture of drunkenness and the
drunkard painted by the hand of man.

"Yet in all this there is no interdict upon the _use_ of wine.
The caution and the precept are against excess."

On the 29th of May, 1843, Mr. Adams delivered before the Massachusetts
Historical Society a discourse in celebration of the Second Centennial
Anniversary of the New England Confederacy of 1643. This work is
characterized by that breadth and depth of research for which he was
distinguished and eminently qualified. It includes traces of the early
settlements of Virginia, New England, Pennsylvania, and New York; of the
causes of each, and the spirit in which they were made and conducted,
and of the principles which they applied in their intercourse with the
aboriginals of the forest. He then