1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

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CUPS AND THBIB CUSTOMS.

attending the abuse of it. Saleneus passed a law for- bidding the use of wine, upon pain of death, except in case of sickness; and the inhabitants of Marseilles and Miletus prohibited the use of it to women. At Rome, in the early ages, young persons of high birth were not permitted to drink wine till they attained the age of thirty^ and to women the use of it was absolutely for- bidden ; but Seneca complains of the violation of this law, and says that in his day the women Talued themselves upon carrying excess of wine to as great a height as the most robust men. €( Like them," says he, u they pass whole nights at tables^ and, with a full glass of unmixed wine in their hands, they glory in vying with them, and, if they can, in overcoming them/ 1 This worthy philo- sopher, however,, appears not to have considered excess of drinking in men a vice; for he goes so far as to advise men of high-strained minds to get intoxicated now and then. "Not/* says he, fr that it may over- power us, but only relax our overstrained faculties/* 1 Soon afterwards he adds, "Do you call Cato^s excess in wine a vice ? Much sooner may you be able to prove drunkenness to be a virtue, than Cato to be vicious/* The first history of wine was written in Latin by Bacci in the 16th century j and in 1775 Sir Edward Barry composed his observations on « Wines of the Ancients/' whose authority, though not reliable, is curious. After him came Dr. Henderson on Wines j and the best treatise of the present day is the History of Wine by Cyrus Bedding. To all wine-keepers and