DRINKING.

HERE are many Intemperances which we fall into in the Course of our Lives, as it were, without Defign, through Complaifance, or the Importunities of Company: Of this Sort, principally is Drinking. We are generally initiated into the Science, before the Liquor is in the leaft palatable: But we consent to disoblige our Taste merely in Compliance, 'till by the babitual Obfequioufnefs, we grow to a Relifh of the Luxury, and then continue the Debauch by Inclination.

A Method of fpending one's Time agreeably is a Thing fo little ftudied, that the common Amusement of our young Gentlemen, is Drinking. This Way of Entertainment has Custom of its Side; but as much as it has prevailed, I believe, there have been very few Companies, that have been guilty of Excefs this Way, where there have not happen'd more Accidents which

make

make againft, than for the Continuance of it.

It is impoffible to lay down any determinate Rule for Temperance; because what is Luxury in one, may be Temperance in another: But there are few of common. Reafon who are not Judges of their own Constitutions, fo far as to know what Proportions do beft agree with them. Were I to prefcribe a Rule for Drinking, it should be form'd upon a Saying quoted by Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE: The first Glass for myfelf, the fecond for my Friends, the third for goodHumour, and the fourth for my Enemies. To go further into Antiquity for a Rule, Plutarch tells us, it was the Advice of Socrates, to beware of fuch Meats as perfwade a Man, though he be not hungry, to eat them; and thofe Liquors that would prevail with a Man to drink them, when he is not thirsty. Temperance, indeed, is a grand Prefervative, which has thofe particular Advantages above all other Means of Health, that it may be practifed by all Ranks and Conditions, at any Seafon, or in any Place. It is a kind of Regimen, into which every Man may put himfelf, without Interruption of Bufinefs, Expence of Money, or Lofs of Time. In a Word, if Exercife throws off Superfluities, Temperance prevents them, gives Nature her full Play,

and

and enables her to exert herself in all her

Force and Vigour:

Would we not permit ourselves to confider Temperance as a moral Virtue, and that every Receding from its Dictates, is a Sin against our Souls: Yet if we would only make the Lofs of Conflitution a Caution, the apparent Injury we do to our Healths, and the Ridicule and Confequences to which Ebriety makes Men obnoxious, we should never fall into Incontinence in Drinking. With all a Man's Reafon and good Senfe about him, his Tongue is apt to utter Things out of meer Gaiety of Heart, which may difplease his best Friends. Who then would truft himfelf to the Power of Wine, without faying more against it, than that it raises the Imagination, and depreffes the Judgment? Were there only this fingle Confideration, that we are lefs Mafters of ourselves when we drink in the leaft Proportion above the Exigencies of Thirst; I fay, were this all that could be objected, it were fufficient to make us abhor this Vice.

But the Effects are of much more Fatality; if we continue to gorge ourselves with this Freedom, and dilute with fuch Profufion and Intemperance, we fhall find the Tone of our Stomachs weakened, the Acids fpoiled, and our Digeftion good for nothing:

And

And when we are once difabled in this Faculty, our Conftitution is undermined, and the Bufinefs commonly ends in Dropy, or Confumption. The Apothecary is perpetually employ'd to countermine the Cook and the Vintner. This Misfortune in the firft Concoction ruins all; for, unless the Juices are well-prepared in the Stomach, the Blood and Spirits must fuffer of course, the Nerves and Mufcles relax, and the Functions of Life lie by and languish. How many young People do we fee miscarry upon this Conduct, and tire upon the Road, before the Journey is half reach'd? Men that made a promifing Appearance at first, that fet forward with Genius and Improvement, have we not seen them metamorphofe them felves at a Tavern, drown their Parts, and drink away their Shape to that Degree, as if the Witchcrafts of Circe had overtaken them, and the magical Draught transformed them to Brutes: Yet as if this debafing Humanity, were a Duty, and as if it were pleafant to give way to fuch a Difguife, Gentlemen too frequently invite on purpose to put the Company in this Condition. Now, if the Invitation was fent in a Letter, and the Truth fpoken out, fays Mr. Collier, it must run in the Tenor following: "Sir, if you please to do me the Favour, to "dine with me, I shall do my best to drink

you out of your Limbs and Senfes, to make you fay a hundred filly things, and play the Fool to Purpofe, if ever you did it in your Life. And, before we part, you shall "be well prepar'd to tumble off your Horse, "to difoblige your Coach, and make your Family fick at the Sight of you: And all "this, for an Opportunity of fhewing, with "bow much Friendship and Refpe&t, I am

your bumble Servant." This, fays he, is often the plain ENGLISH of an Entertainment; and though the Kindness may look fomething odly, 'tis the main Drift of the Matter; the Point is purfued, and the Conquest boasted.

It is a further Argument to the difcountenancing this ugly Frailty, that as he who drinks but little, is not Mafter of himself, fo he who drinks much, is a Slave to himfelf. As for my Part, I ever esteemed a Drunkard, of all vicious Perfons, the most vicious: For, if our Actions are to be weigh'd and confidered according to the Intention of them, what can we think of him who puts himself into a Circumftance wherein he can have no Intention at all, but incapacitates himself for the Duties and Offices of Life, by a Sufpenfion of all his Faculties. If a Man confidered, that he cannot, under the Oppreffion of Drink, be a Friend, a Gentleman, a Mafter, or a Subject; that he has fo long banish'd himself from all that is dear,

and