1892 The flowing bowl when and what to drink (1892, c1891)

XV

PREFACE.

A habitual drinker will never indulge in beverages artistically mixed; he lacks the taste of them, as they do not bring him rapidly enough to his desired nirvana. In drinking, our aim must be enjoyment, not inebria- tion. Thus the culture of mixed drinks will lead us with greater sureness to true temperance than all blue laws ever will be able to do. Another reason for setting my foot upon the slippery road of a public writer was the general approval my new concoctions met with. For years I have been urged to publish the recipes of the same; some of them have been communicated to the public by the medium of our leading newspapers, when occasion and demand seemed to render it desirable. Never, however, I felt inclined to giving the reader only a series of recipes. My ambition took a higher flight. If ever I was to place anything upon the market, it should be a book containing not only recipes valuable to professional men mostly, but one, the reading matter of which should be of a kind that every intelligent man might find at least something to arouse his interest. Should this my sincere wish find fulfillment, even in a limited degree, my labor bestowed on this volume I should not think wasted. The reading matter does not claim to replace an en- cyclopaedia; I restrained myself to select only such subjects as might be of some value to the majority of my readers. In the Physiology of Drinking I preferred to give general hints than an entire treatise on this sub-