WINE. "I'm one of those Who think good wine needs neither bush nor preface Motto in PEVERAL OF THE PEAK. "WINE.-"You'll leave your impudence, and learn to know your superiors, Beere, or I may chance to have you stopt up. What! never leave working? I am none of your fellowes."" "BEERE.-'I scorn thou shouldest.'" "WINE. I am a companion for princes; the least droppe of my blood is worth all thy body. I am sent for by the citizens, visited by the gallants, kissed by the gentlewomen: I am their life, their genius, the poetical furie, the Helicon of the Muses; of better value than Beere-I should be sorry else."" "BEERE.-Thou art sorry wine, indeed, sometimes. Value? You are come up of late; men pay deere for your company, and repent it that gives you not the precedence. Though Beere set not so great a price upon himself, he means not to bate a grain of his worth, nor subscribe to wine for all his brandie."" "WINE. 'Not to me?'" "BEERE. Not to you. Why, whence come you, I pray ?"" "WINE. From France, from Spaine, from Greece.' ("WINE, BEERE, ALE, and TOBACCO contending for Superiority. A Dialogue. London. 1630.") WINE. Or late years a certain sect have gained ground, who, starting with the most amazing paradoxes, and putting forward the most extravagant claims, have succeeded in winning the support of a large portion of the weaker and more gullible of the British public. Quacks and quackery have ever been patronised by John Bull. State confidently something new, however startling and absurd-if manifestly in the teeth of the accumulated experience of all classes of men of every age and clime, so much the betterand you are sure to enlist the sympathies of some men and more women. Societies will be found to propagate your plans. The bray of Exeter Hall will be sounded in your favour-testimonials will be presented to yourself, and young ladies will smile on you approvingly, as the great moral reformer of your age. If men, instead of calmly demolishing you by the rules of logic, hold you up to ridicule, as the more sensible portion of them will, you can magnanimously fold your arms and bide your time-with an attempt at heroism truly edifying, you can wait the verdict of a coming age, and in the meanwhile can draw comparisous between your own fate and that of men who have really done something for which humanity has had reason to rejoice. We object in toto to Teetotallers: the name itself is enough to damn a better cause. No one who has the least reverence for English undefiled, would tolerate for one instant the application of such a barbarous epithet to himself. We object to the doctrine that "bold, bright wine, That biddeth the manly spirit shine," taken in moderation-is the unmitigated ill they represent it. We deem the mode adopted by Teetotallers, of binding men by a vow, instead of getting them to stand on the high platform of principle, a most miserable delusion; and we think the argument against any article, from the abuse of it, the most senseless and transparent fallacy we ever remember to have heard urged. In the same way, we might argue successfully against everything great and good. This is our calm and deliberate opinion-we trust it is that of our readers as well. We feel it our duty to state it openly and manfully. On this head, we charge the liberal portion of the press with a want of honesty. Paragraphs will appear, chronicling Teetotal proceedings, and implying sympathy with their movements-drawn up by men who enjoy their glass when they can get it, as much as the most seasoned topers in the land. The men connected with the press, either as editors or reporters, are not Teetotallers; as most of them are gentlemen, it is impossible they should be. We believe it is sometimes thought politic to gratify Teetotal vanity in the way to which we have referred, but it is one that must be con |