sorry. Even that eminent debauchee, Nero, was only three times sick in
fourteen years. "Nam qui luxuriae immoderatissimae esset, ter omnino per
xiv. annos languit; atque ita, ut neque _vino_, neque consuetudine
_reliqua_ abstineret."

The Abbé de Voisenon, a very diminutive man, said to his physician, who
ordered him a quart of ptisan per hour, "Ah! my friend, how can you
desire me to swallow a quart an hour? I hold only a pint."

Wine has not only been considered good for the body, but has, from the
earliest period, been thought invigorating to the mind. Thus we find it
a constant theme of praise with poets. Martial says--

Regnat nocte calix, volvuntur biblia mane,
Cum Phoebo Bacchus dividit imperium.

All night I drink, and study hard all day;
Bacchus and Phoebus hold divided sway.

Horace has done ample justice to it; and even Homer says--

The weary find new strength in generous wine.

Upon the principle, no doubt, of expanding the imagination, we find, so
early as 1374, old Geoffrey Chaucer had a pitcher of wine a day allowed
him. Ben Jonson, in after times, had the third of a pipe annually; and a
certain share of this invigorating aliment has been the portion of
Laureates down to the present day.

Nor are the poets the only eulogists of wine. Some of the greatest names