Baillie, who had no more to do with it
than Boerhaave, as he has been known to declare. Sherry, and nothing but
Sherry, however, could or would the _Podagres_ drink.
Dr. Reynolds, who lived and practised very much with the higher orders,
had a predilection for that noble and expensive comforter, Hoc! which
short word, from his lips, has often made the doctor's physic as costly
as the doctor's fee.
Wine has also been recommended, by the highest medical authorities, as
alleviating the infirmities of old age.
A Greek physician recommended it to Alexander as the pure blood of the
earth.
Though an excess in wine is highly blamable, yet it is more pardonable
than most other excesses. The progressive steps to it are cheerful,
animating, and seducing; the melancholy are relieved, the grave
enlivened, the witty and gay inspired--which is the very reverse of
excess in eating: for, Nature satisfied, every additional morsel carries
dulness and stupidity with it. "Every inordinate cup is unbless'd, and
the ingredient is a devil," says Shakspeare.
"King Edgar, like a king of good fellows," adds Selden, "or master of
the revels, made a law for Drinking.
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