g James, that has been made against
those swill-bowls,

Swabbers of drunken feasts, and lusty rowers,
In full-brimmed rummers that do ply their oars,

"who, by their carouses (tippling up Nestor's years as if they were
celebrating the goddess _Anna Perenna_,) do, at the same time, drink
others' health, and mischief and spoil their own and the public."

An argument very much after this fashion was held by the learned Sir
Thomas More. Sir Thomas was sent ambassador to the Emperor by king Henry
the Eighth. The morning he was to have his audience, _knowing the virtue
of wine_, he ordered his servant to bring him a good large glass of
Sack; and, having drunk that, called for another. The servant, with
officious ignorance, would have dissuaded him from it, but in vain; the
ambassador drank off a second, and demanded a third, which he likewise
drank off; insisting on a fourth, he was over-persuaded by his servant
to let it alone; so he went to his audience. But when he returned home,
he called for his servant, and threatened him with his cane. "You
rogue," said he, "what mischief have you done me! I spoke so to the
emperor, on the inspiration of those three glasses that I drank, that he
told me I was fit to govern three parts of the world. Now, you dog! if I
had drunk the fourth glass, I had been fit to govern all the world."

The French, a very sober people, have a proverb--

Qu'il faut, a chaque mois,
S'enivrer au moins une fois.

Which has been improved by some, on this side the water, into an excuse
for getting drunk every day in the week, for fear that the _specific
day_ should be missed. It would, however, startle some of our sober
readers, to find this made a question of grave argument--yet, "whether
it is not healthful to be drunk once a month," is treated on by Dr. Carr
in his letters to Dr. Quincy.--_Brande's Jour._

[5] Cato allowed his slaves, during the Saturnalia, four bottles
of wine per diem.

[6] Two congii are seven quarts, or eight bottles!

[7] An eminent house-painter in the city, a governor of St.
Bartholomew's Hospital, got a receipt for the Painter's Cholic
(cholica pictonum,) which contained all sorts of comfortable
things--the chief ingredients being Cogniac brandy and spices.
It did wonders with the first two or three cases; but he found
the success of the remedy so increased the frequency of the
complaint, that he was compelled to give up hi