Sack; and, having drunk that, called for another. The servant, with
officious ignorance, would have dissuaded him from it, but in vain; the
ambassador drank off a second, and demanded a third, which he likewise
drank off; insisting on a fourth, he was over-persuaded by his servant
to let it alone; so he went to his audience. But when he returned home,
he called for his servant, and threatened him with his cane. "You
rogue," said he, "what mischief have you done me! I spoke so to the
emperor, on the inspiration of those three glasses that I drank, that he
told me I was fit to govern three parts of the world. Now, you dog! if I
had drunk the fourth glass, I had been fit to govern all the world."

The French, a very sober people, have a proverb--

Qu'il faut, à chaque mois,
S'enivrer au moins une fois.

Which has been improved by some, on this side the water, into an excuse
for getting drunk every day in the week, for fear that the _specific
day_ should be missed. It would, however, startle some of our sober
readers, to find this made a question of grave argument--yet, "whether
it is not healthful to be drunk once a month," is treated on by Dr. Carr
in his letters to Dr. Quincy.--_Brande's Jour._

[5] Cato allowed his slaves, during the Saturnalia, four bottles
of wine per diem.

[6] Two congii are seven quarts, or eight bottles!

[7] An eminent house-painter in the city, a governor of St.
Bartholomew's Hospital, got a receipt for the Painter's Cholic