having for the moment the supremacy. All nature here was filled to overflowing with that intoxicating power which carries men onward in their wild career to happy success or soul-crushing destruction. Here so often they might with the Cyclops sing,
" Ha! ha! I am full of wine, Heavy with the joy divine."
Thousands every day were as drunk as birds of paradise— so drunk that ants mioht eat their leos ofl".
There have never been lacking those who in a breath would solve all social riddles, and eradicate all social evils. There are temperance fanatics as well as religious and political fanatics, and anti-slavery, antitobacco, and anti-tea-and-coffee fanatics. It is not by grinding still deeper in the mire the unfortunate and vicious that gambling and prostitution are eradicated. "The California wines are a disappointment and a failure," says Dr Holland rejoicingly. " They are not popular wines, and we congratulate the country that they never can be." This is not only untrue, but it is both a wicked and a silly sentiment.
Lecky perceives a remedy in the use of tea, coffee, and chocolate, which checks *'the boisterous revels that had once been universal, and raising woman to a new position in the domestic circle, they have contributed very largely to refine manners, to introduce a new order of tastes, and to soften and improve the character of men."
The Norsemen taught the English to dismiss their ladies from their drinking-parties; the Vikings followed the same custom.
The custom of pledging in wine arose during the tenth century, when it was considered a necessity for a person, while drinking, to have some one to watch, lest he should be killed by some enemy or stranger during the act.
In drinking to their lady-loves, the Romans used to take a glass for every letter of the name; spelling with beer-glasses, Hudibras called the custom.
