1863 Cups and their customs

CUPS AND THEIR CUSTOMS.

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the operation^ and at the conclusion to make an incli- nation of his head, — this being the origin of our custom of taking wine with each other, which, with sorrow be it said, is fast exploding. A very usual toast for a man to give was the health of his mistress ; and in France, when this toast was given, the proposer was expected to drink his cup full of wine as many times as there were letters in her name. We now pass on to times which seem, in their cus- toms, to approach more nearly to the present, yet far back enough to be called old times; and we think it may be pardoned if we indulge in some reminiscences of them, tacking on to our short-lived memories the greater recol- lection of history, and thus reversing the wheels of time, which are hurrying us forward faster than we care to go. For we hold it to be an excusable matter, this halting awhile and looking back to times of simpler manners than those we are living in, of heartier friendships, of more genial trustings ; and that these good qualities were pre- eminently those current during the. 17th and 18th cen- turies we have abundant proof. Has not one of the most noble sentiments in the English language come down to us in a cup — the cup of kindness, which we are bidden to take for " Auld Lang Syne^^? And truly there come to us from this age passed by, but leaving behind an ever-living freshness which can be made an heritage of cheerfulness to the end of time, such testimonies of good done by associable as well as social intercourse, that were we cynics of the most churlish kind, instead of people inclined to be kind and neighbourly, we could