the early German tribes, important questions, such as the reconciliation of enemies, the forming of family alliances, the election of chiefs, and even peace and war, were canvassed in their carousing festivals. "The convivial moment, according to their notion, was the true season for business, when the mind opens itself in plain simplicity or grows warm with bold and noble ideas. Strangers to artifice, and knowing no refinement, they then tell their sentiments without disguise. The pleasure of the table expands their hearts and calls forth every secret. On the following day the subject of the debate is again taken into consideration, and thus two different periods of time have their distinct uses; when warm they debate, when cool they decide." Alexander the Great was much given up to dissipation in wine banquets. Androcydes, the noble sage, wrote to Alexander to correct and reform his intemperate drinking of wine: "My good lord, remember when you drink wine you drink the very blood of the earth. Hemlock, you know, sir, is poison to man; and so is wine to hemlock." But this advice seems to have produced no restraint upon Alexander, and he kept on killing himself and his friends by his excesses. On the capture of Babylon, he abandoned himself to the most intemperate conviviality. Already full of wine, he was persuaded by his friend Medius to sup with him. They passed the whole night in drinking, with the boisterous indulgence called by the Greeks komus, or revelry. Having slept off his intoxication during the next day, in the evening he again supped with Medius, and spent the second night in the like unmeasured indulgence. This story of Alexander's death, discredited by some critics, is accepted by Grote in his "History of Greece." There were twenty guests at the table. He drank to the health of every person, and then pledged them severally. "After this, calling for the cup of Hercules, which held six bottles, it was filled, when he drank it all down, drinking to Proteas, by name, and afterward pledged him again in the same enormous bumper. He had no sooner swallowed it than he fell upon the floor." A violent fever set in, and he died soon after. "Here, then," said Seneca, describing the fatal effects of drunkenness, "is this hero, invincible by all the toils of prodigious marches, by the dangers of sieges and combats, by the most violent extremes of heat and cold; here he lies, conquered by his intemperance, and struck to the earth by the fatal cup of Hercules." The younger Pliny gives a clear view of the drinking habits of the Romans about the beginning of the Christian era. He says: As though nature had not liberally bestowed water, with which all other animals are content, we even force our horses to drink wine; and we purchase, at great pains and expense, a liquor which deprives man of the use of his reason, renders him furious, and is the cause of an infinite number of crimes. Multitudes know no pleasure in life but that of drinking it. Yea, that we may drink the more, we weaken this liquor by passing it through a straining-bag, and we invent other methods to stimulate our thirst. We go so far as to employ poisons. Some persons, before drinking, make use of hemlock, that the fear of death may compel them to drink. Others swallow powder of pumice-stone, and many other things, which I should blush to name. The most prudent facilitate the digestion of various crudities by resorting to sweating-rooms, whence they are sometimes carried forth half dead. Some cannot even wait to reach their couch, on the first quitting of the bath, nor even to put on their tunic; but, naked and panting as they are, rush eagerly on great pitchers of wine, which they drain to the bottom, as if to exhibit the strength of their stomachs. They next vomit and drink anew, renewing the like career, once, twice, or three times, as though born only to waste wine-as though men were under obligations to be the channel by which wine should return to the earth. Others borrow from the barbarians most extraordinary exercises, to show that they are constituted genuine wine-bibbers. They tumble in the mire, where they affect to lay the head flat upon the back, and to display a broad and muscular chest. All this they shamefully practice, because these violent acts lead them to drink with increased avidity. And now, what shall we say to the infamous representations upon the drinking cups and vessels for wine, which would seem as though drunkenness alone were insufficient to excite men to lewdness. Thus they drink, as if prostitution and drunkenness―ye gods!—were invited and even bribed with a reward. Some receive a certain sum of money on condition of eating as much as much as they drink; while others spend in wine what they obtain in games of chance. Thus the eyes of the husband become heavy, while those of the wife are wide open and employed in full liberty. In the reign of Tiberius Claudius, about forty years ago, it became the custom in Rome to drink wine in the morning with empty stomachs, and to take no food till after drinking. This practice was of foreign derivation, and was introduced by certain physicians, who wished to commend themselves to public favor by the introduction of some novelty. To drink is, by the Parthians, considered highly honorable. Among the Greeks, Alcibiades has thus distinguished himself. Among the Latins, Marcellius Torquatus, of Milan, who had been pretor and proconsul, has obtained the surname of Tricongius by drinking at once (one sitting) three congii of wine, in the presence, and to the great astonishment of, the Emperor Tiberius, who, in his old age, became severe and even cruel, but in his youth was much addicted to drinking. It is believed, moreover, that Lucius Piso obtained from him the prefectship of Rome for having remained at table two days and two nights in succession with this prince, who had even then mounted the throne. It was said also that in nothing did Drusus Cæsar more closely resemble his father, Tiberius, than in the quality of a deep drinker. Torquatus, of whom we have spoken above, had no equal in his exact observance of the Bacchanalian laws; for the art of drinking has also its laws. Whatever quantity of wine he drank, he never stuttered or vomited. The morning found him still at his potations. He swallowed a great quantity of wine at one draught; and if a small cup was poured out to him, he never failed to demand the remainder. While he drank he never took breath nor spat, and he never left in his glass any heel-taps, which could produce sound when thrown on the pavement; in which he diligently observed the rules for the prevention of trick in drinking. Tergilla reproached M. T. Cicero that he drank two congii at a single draught; and that one day, being intoxicated, he had thrown a glass at the head of Marcus Agrippa. Truly these are the works of drunkenness. But doubtless Cicero, the son, wished to take from Mark Antony, the murderer of his father, the palm of drunkenness; for it is well known that, before him, Antony had been very jealous of the title of a first-rate drinker, and even published a treatise on his drunkenness, in which he dared to apologize for that vice. But this treatise persuades me only, that the drunkenness of Antony was the cause of all the evils with which he has afflicted the earth. He vomited forth this work a short time before the battle of Actium; as if to show that he was already intoxicated with the blood of the citizens, and thirsted only for more of it. WOMEN AND WINE. In the early history of Rome, and during the period of the Republic, woman was exempted from this terrible dissipation, by a law of positive enactment. She was forbidden to taste of wine, and the law being enforced with the earliest training, as a habit and traditionary reverence, it became incorporated with the moral feelings of the people, so that its violation was regarded as a monstrous crime. Cato is represented as saying, "The husband has an absolute authority over the wife; it is for him to condemn and punish her, if she has been guilty of any shameful act, such as drinking wine." Pliny ascribed this law to Romulus, and he mentioned two cases in which women were put to death for this offense, and a third case, in which the offender was deprived of her dowry. Cato says that the ancient Romans were accustomed to kiss their wives for the purpose of discovering whether they had been guilty of drinking wine. Lactantius says that Bona Dea was originally a woman, named Fatua, who was famous for her modesty and fidelity to her husband; but who, unfortunately, having once found a cask of wine in her house, became drunk, and was in consequence scourged to death by her husband. He afterward repented of this act, and paid divine honors to her memory; and, as a memorial of her death, a cask of wine was placed upon the altar during the rites. In subsequent periods, when drinking and drunkenness became common with the male sex, the women came gradually to be partners in these excesses. The laws subsequently relaxed and fell into desuetude; luxury and gluttony abounded in Rome, and Roman ladies boldly rivaled their husbands in wine dissipation. Seneca represents them as passing whole nights at the table, with charged goblets in their hands, proud of their power to carry off an excess of wine. No banqueting could be more dissipating. It was the period of Roman luxury. Shakespeare represents Cleopatra, in her rioting with Antony, as saying: I laughed him out of patience; and that night Tertullian (A. D. 200 to 220) speaks of the prohibition of wine to Roman women as in his time obsolete; and the prevalent desire for it among women was one of the greatest trials of St. Monica. ANCIENT ABSTAINERS. In all these ancient times there was not wanting those who abstained from the use of wine and other strong drinks. Indeed, temperance is older than intemperance. The Old Testatament abounds in examples of temperance. The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were men of abstemious habits. Hagar, when sent by Abraham against her will into the wilderness, received from him bread and a bottle, not of wine, but of water. The priests were commanded to drink no wine nor strong drink, neither they nor enjoined as a "statute forever The reason assigned is very their sons with them; and it was throughout their generations." significant: "That ye may put a difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean." The Nazarites were total abstinence men; for we read, "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow the vow of a Nazarite, to separate |