1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

CUPS AND THEIB CUSTOMS.

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brewage (and a very pleasant and commendable cup the great master of the gentle art will drink with, them), or when pious Master Herbert chances to meet with a man he liketh, who hath the manner of Wing all things for the good that is in them, and who, like his greater companion, (for no one in that quality of mind was greater than Herbert,) had a respect for what, in others, were occasions of stumbling, could use good gifts with- out abusing them, and think the lo?ing-cup of spiced wine an excellent good cordial for the heart, or when Dr. Donne (scarce a man in England wiser than he), laying aside for the time his abstruse learning, mixed a mighty cup of gillyflower sack, and talked oyer it with Sir Keselm Digby (hardly a lesser man than himself), of the good gifts lavishly offered, but by some rudely abused, and by others unthankfally taken, discussed the merits of plants and fruits, or the virtues, harder to be discovered, of stones and metals, while they mar- velled at that scheme which adapted each body, animate or inanimate, to the station ordained to it, and at the infinite goodness of Him who made man head of all, and gave Mm power and discernment that he might show, by the moderate use of things healthy and nourishing, the wisdom of Him who ordained them to cheer and to cherish. A great regard for the whole- some had Sir Kenelm Digby, whose carefulness in the concoction of his favourite cup was such that he could not brew it aright if he had not Hyde-Park water—a rule of much value in Sir Kenelm*s day, no doubt j but modern €€ improvements/* unfortunately, interfere with