Wine, women, and the gods comprehended all that was divine among the ancients. After the discovery of America, however, the settlers becoming godless, and yet not willing to be behind their primogenitors in point of felicities, substituted tobacco, and never before did wine, women, and tobacco, severally and unitedly, lend their charms to solace and derange humanity as in the case of mammon-martyrs of California. The last was considered a necessity, and the first soon became the cordial of success, the consoler of the unfortunate, and the medium of courteous exchanges.
Some of man's distinguishing; characteristics, showing his great superiority and true nobility of soul, before intimated, lies in the creation of appetites for the pleasure their gratification gives; appetites which may be renewed, not satisfied by the indulgence, but which grow from what they fed on. He alone eats without hunger, drinks without thirst, smokes, blasphemes, seeking for body and mind new sensations. The custom of drinking healths and rememberance dates back to periods of the remotest antiquity. In the earliest ages as at the present time it was a religious as well as a social ceremonial. As Anacreon sings: "Does not the earth drink the waves, the tree the earth, the sea the air, the sun the sea, and the moon the sun? Then why should I not drink?" The Hebrews had their drink offering's, the Greeks and the Romans poured out their libations to the gods, and Christians to this day observe the command, drink ye all of it. From these beginnings drinking to majesty naturally followed; the health and victories of Augustus were drank in Rome; and feasts were celebrated in which drunkenness was the chief feature. The Greek proverb adopted by the Romans does not, however, say, I drink in order that your health may be improved or preserved, but I invite you to drink by drinking myself. It was the fame of the mistress rather than her health that was to be
