3.
I've trod thy banner in the dust,

And caused the raven call
From thy bride-chamber, to the owl

Hatch'd on thy castle wall;
I've made thy minstrels' music dumb,

And silent now to fame
Art thou, save when the orphan casts

His curses on thy name.
Now thou may'st say to good men's prayers

A long and last farewell:
There's hope for every sin save thine-
Adieu, adieu, Dalzell!

4.
The grim pit opes for thee her gates,

Where punish'd spirits wail,
And ghastly death throws wide her door,

And hails thee with a Hail.
Deep from the grave there comes a voice,

A voice with hollow tones,
Such as a spirit's tongue would have,

That spoke through hollow bones :“ Arise, ye martyr'd men, and shout

From earth to howling hell;
He comes, the persecutor comes;
All hail to thee, Dalzell !”

5.
O'er an old battle-field there rush'd

A wind, and with a moan
The sever'd limbs all rustling rose,

Even fellow bone to bone.
“ Lo! there he goes,” I heard them cry,

“ Like babe in swathing band, Who shook the temples of the Lord,

And pass'd them 'neath his brand.
Cursed be the spot where he was born,

There let the adders dwell,
And from his father's hearthstone hiss :
All hail to thee, Dalzell !”

6.
I saw thee growing like a tree--

Thy green head touch'd the sky-
But birds far from thy branches built,

The wild deer pass'd thee by ;
No golden dew dropt on thy bough,

Glad summer scorn'd to grace
Thee with her flowers, nor shepherds wooed

Beside thy dwelling place:
The axe has come and hewn thee down,

Nor left one shoot to tell
Where all thy stately glory grew.
Adieu, adieu, Dalzell!

7.
An ancient man stands by thy gate,

His head like thine is gray,
Gray with the woes of many years,

Years four-score and a day.
Five brave and stately sons were his ;

Two daughters, sweet and rare;

An old dame, dearer than them all,

And lands both broad and fair :-
Two broke their hearts when two were slain,

And three in battle fell ---
An old man's curse shall cling to thee :
Adieu, adieu, Dalzell!

8.
And yet I sigh to think of thee,

A warrior tried and true
As ever spurr'd a steed, when thick

The splintering lances flew.
I saw thee in thy stirrups stand,

And hew thy foes down fast,
When Grierson fled, and Maxwell fail'd,

And Gordon stood aghast,
And Graeme, saved by thy sword, raged fierce

As one redeem'd from hell.
I came to curse thee

and I weep :
So go in peace, Dalzell.

ON WINE.

a

Hæc comici dicta cave ne malè capias.
They that leave wine for water, if they had a candle in their noddles
might peradventure find the way to Gotham. Dr. Rich. Short's Essay
Aspe fuxponostas, or of Drinking Water, against those Novelists who pre-

scribed it in England. While all the grave and wise peo- best boon, I can scarce keep my paple in the nation have been arguing tience, though it is somewhat amusone way or another about a dimi- ing to think how wine has been voted nution of taxation, I have been look- more and more deleterious, and how ing carnestly and anxiously for some the number of its traducers has inindication that the existing duties on creased, as that enemy of enjoyment, wine are to be abated: but vain have the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has been my hopes; and I have at length augmented his imposts. The truth resolved to speak forth my sense of is, without a fable, that the dear the matter. Let not, however, any “ grapes” are called “ sour.” Every reader fear that I mean to trouble man who considers the matter, must him with any erudite or philosophic be sensible that the bottle circulates diatribe of a politico-economical na- round our tables with much less veture. He shall not hear one word of locity than it did when the impulse consumption or production. Not one was supplied by the arms of our odious figure shall meet his eye. That grand-sires; and slow as is its movery irksome thing, calculation, how- tion, the period of rotation is dreadever advantageous on other occasions, fully curtailed. Instead of the festive does not serve my present purposes. Í revels our ancestors held, three or stand forward, backed by the autho- four glasses are the usual modern rity of lyrists and poets of all ages, measure of potation after the retireto protest against the proscription of ment of the ladies. The pitiful prethat chosen object of their eulogy, the cept of Dionysius seems to be literally true Nepenthes, wine: I view with observed. How little did he know alarm the listlessness and infrequency of the joys of the table when he with which the rites of the great di- spake thus, “ Tres tantùm crateras vinity of the grape are now perform- his qui sanâ sunt mente jubes, pried; and I behold with consterna- mum sanitatis, secundum voluptatis, tion the accessions of each successive tertium somni ; ulteriùs probri est year to the fraternity of water-drink- et luxuriæ.” « I would have all ers, whom I hold in utter abhorrence. people of sense take but three glasses As I hear one man after another exe- of wine, the first for health, the secrate the perniciousness of earth's cond for pleasure, the third for sleep; --more is digraceful voluptuousness." College," as is stiled the author of a A passage of similar purport has been tract published in the year 1724, with palmed upon us as old Hesiod's,—it the alluring title of the “ Juice of must be an interpolation. Sage and the Grape," and written in a spirit grave as he was (not surpassed by of most commendable earnestness. the bye in the excellence of his moral -The gay and mercurial Frenchprecepts, by any of the long list of man needs not wine to excite his spiauthors who have followed him) herits, nor would his disposition allow was too much of a poet to have been him to - avail himself of its more guilty of uttering such an interdict. valuable operation in soothing the Nulla placere diù nec vivere carmina pos- goodfellowship, and correcting the

heart, in promoting kindness and sunt, Quæ scribuntur aquæ potoribus.

acerbities of temper.

The sober llor. I lib. Epist. xix. v. 2. Englishman, however, is apt to be

come stupid, and needs the aid of I heard a worthy Irish peer declare wine to get rid of his constitutional some time ago, that when he was a frigidity. It may be remarked that young man he was despised as a the manners of the young men of this milksop, that he now drinks precise- day are far less lively and agreeable ly the same quantity of wine, and than were those of what is called the finds himself shrewdly remarked upon old school. Many of them are cold, as somewhat too fond of his bottle. silent, and apathetic in society : their Such is the degeneracy of the age, grandfathers were full of life and and such the woeful revolution ! glee, and animation. In the comThe good old days of English jollity pany of women, the beau of the last and conviviality are at an end. It is century was assiduous in his efforts true, some conceit of the washy, to render himself agreeable, and to weak French wines is affected—to display all possible vivacity. His speak in the quaint phraseology of attentions were constant and anxious; the 15th century—but there is no his countenance was lighted up with hearty, healthy thirst of rich and ge- cheerfulness and joy, his language nerous potent liquor. A dinner party was full of fervour and devotion and is now a cold and formal affair ; it is gallantry. But it is now fashionable, only sought to gratify the palate; suprême bon ton, to be listless, rethe pestiferous French cookery, and served, and mute. The solicitous those vinegar wines are the objects gallantry of the former period is no of favour: no effort is made to warm more, in the presence of beauty, in the heart, there is no cordial for the conversation with the loveliest and blood, nothing to quicken the flow of fairest ; none of the suavity and comthe affections: that juice which is placency natural on the occasion is potent "solvere præcordia virùm” (to betrayed: the hand of the brightest open the heart) is despised. A man belle is received without emotion, may now dine with fifty hosts one and relinquished with indifference. after another, and be as far from any An observation on the trifle of the real friendship or cordial kindness for hour is made with a gravity not less any of them, as he might after a call solemn than would beseem the deliof ten minutes' duration in a chill very of a death-bed monition. Ease November morning, when one is dis- and freedom have been proclaimed posed to like neitherone's-self norother the order of the day :--the punctilio people. The hospitality of the pre- and observance of the old regime sent day is eminently heartless; men have been exploded; but the effect do not forget their cares, or their ri- has too often been, not that people valries and animosities in such kindly have indulged their mirth and huintercourse as used to prevail over mour without restraint or controul, the bowl. When the gravity and but that they have considered themseverity of the English character is selves at liberty to be stupid, that considered, it is plain that the con- they deem themselves absolved from viviality in which we formerly in- all obligation to amuse, or contribute dulged was very beneficial. “'Wa- to the hilarity of society. In public ter is but an indifferent liquor in nothing was formerly seen but smiles northern climates and English con- -perhaps a little forced occasionally stitutions," quoth “ A Fellow of the

-We now sec long faces as dark and

a

a

melancholy as the fogs of our northern And ever against eating cares clime can make them.

Lap me in soft Lydian airs. All this is part and parcel of the But it has been better and earlier system by which wine is avoided. I said, “ dissipat Evius curas edaces.” have said that I am backed by all the

“ Wine dissipates all eating cares." I poets in my defence of the grape, cannot forbear staying one moment and I had it in contemplation to col- to hint that the epithet (eating) may lect the testimonies in its favour from have been suggested to the poet hy them all, beginning with old Homer the operation which wine has in dehimself (“ laudibus arguitur vini vi- stroying the appetite, according to nosus Homerus.”)

the learned fathers of physic. I do When Homer sings the joys of man, 'tis not commend indiscriminate conviplain

viality ; I must know and have Great Homer was not of a sober strain.

proved the friends in whose company and to preface my paper with this I celebrate the mysteries. But I abbody of authorities, as was erst the hor the man whose soul is a stranger practice of Editors who filled the to the joys of social intercourse. In first-half dozen pages of a book with the fable of Pentheus, who was deall the commendations of it which stroyed by Bacchanalians for refusing could be gleaned. But the collection to join in their revels, the ancients I made was so large, that I was have veiled the just doom of the sulforced to forego my plan, and I must len and unsocial spirit which shuns content myself with referring to the festivity. While the impulses of inpoets passim—of all ages, and climes terest, and of all the evil passions of they unite in praise of the grape ; our nature are so strong; while our « vina fere dulces oluerunt mane Ca- anger, our cupidity, our avarice, our mænæ.” In recommendation of con

ambition, our envy, our animosities viviality, I may cite graver autho

are so strongly excited by the fierce rities. Aristotle himself has pro- strife of human life, the soothing efnounced that there is a class of vir- fect of joining the social board and tues proper to our intercourse in so- banquet are most salutary. Socrates ciety, and that moroseness and gra- compared wine to the soft dew of vity are not less unbecoming on cer- Heaven, and pronounced it to be tain occasions, than levity may be given to refresh, nourish, and invigounseemly on others. The most ele- rate the affections of men's hearts. gant and fascinating of moral philo- And Cicero makes it a particular agsophers, Adam Smith, in his beau- gravation of his charges against Mark tiful exposition of the sympathy of Antony, that wine itself was incaour nature, (see Theory of Moral pable of soothing and chastening his Sentiments) and the sagacious Hume evil nature. himself, have spoken of the agreeable qualities, with a due sense of their Sollicitis animis onus eximit, addocet artes. value and importance. The ultimate Wine eases and refines the soul. object of all labour and tra

The earliest annals of us, Britons, joyment; he is not a wise man but a from the time that cerevisia was our fool who despises mirth and jollity. drink, and of our German remote Machiavel tells in his Flor. Hist. progenitors, all proclaim the national (Book 8) that Cosmo di Medicis de- habits of conviviality. And if the lighted in the most simple amuse- British character be an object worthy ments; and our own great Fox has of our regard, we ought not to view been found actively engaged in a with indifference the recent revolugame at bowls with some children. tion in those habits which most di* Narratur et prisci Catonis sæpe rectly and materially affect it. Let mero caluisse virtus.” Wine has the sapient philosopher and politician warmed the virtues of old Cato him- draw auguries from observations beself. The festivities of Bacchus af- yond the reach of vulgar eyes; but ford the truest delight; while en- while they determine the duration gaged in them our bosoms thrill with of one empire, and predict the rise that benevolence, and all those gene- and growth of another, while they rous sentiments which the businesses mark the puny beginnings of a sect and cares of life stifle: it has been which is hereafter to comprehend said,

millions of proselytes, or foretel the

ole is en

man.

extensive prevalence and powerful particle (the soul). I only advocate sway of opinions now doubtfully or what the learned Sir Thomas Brown, timorously expressed; I may be per- Knight, of Norwich, designates “a mitted to indulge my speculations on sober incalescence and regular æstuthe injurious consequences of the ation from wine, what may be conmodern aðiya, which I shall English ceived between Joseph and his breby “ thirstlessness.” England never thren, when the text expresseth they will be well, her sailors and soldiers were merry, or drank largely, and will want courage, our statesmen will whereby, indeed, the commodities set want wisdom, our politicians will down by Avicenna, viz. alleviation want ardour, our young men will of spirit, resolution of superfluities, want gallantry, and our old ones will and provocation of exsudation may quickly fall into the grave, if the also ensue. Thus felicitously and Chancellor of the Exchequer don't perspicuously has the worthy medigive us our fill of wine. The learned ciner summed up the advantages of Dr. Whittaker, physician to King the liquor. He has, however, failed Charles the Second, bears his honest to notice, that wine is the true assay attestation to the fact, that the of sterling honesty and virtue. As “ blood of the grape restores con- you prove gold and silver, says Plato, sumptive and extenuate bodies to by fire, so you may men by wine. sarcosity, makes withered bodies To the same purport Æschylus says, plump, fat and fleshy, the old and brass (of which mirrors were in his infirm, young and strong-whereas day made) may give the outward water and small beer drinkers are figure, wine discovers the inward countenanced more like apes than I know no man till I see him men.” Water is a raw, cold, crude, in his cups. I would trust no man tasteless and scentless fluid ; it ma- who did not stand the test. I cannifests no virtues to any of our senses.

not better celebrate the virtues of But wine is a well concocted and pu- wine than by quoting the following rified juice, grateful to the smell, and eloquent and admirable passage from charming to the taste. Ty öðatos the book of Esdras, iii. 19. * Wine οίνος βελτίων τα πάντα. “In every makes the mind of the king and of respect, wine is better than water, the fatherless both one, of the bond says the prince of physicians, Galen and free man, poor and rich; it turneth himself

. 'Tis true, no doubt, the use all his thoughts to joy and mirth, of wine is, like all the other goods of makes him remember no sorrow or life, liable to abuse ; and, like other debt, but enricheth his heart, and things, inost excellent in their nature, makes him speak by talents.” it is productive, if improperly and In turning over some old books I intemperately used, of the most per- lately met with a curious and whimnicious results. Nevertheless, sical book, entitled Wine, Beer, Ale, * * * Dulce periculum est,

and Tobacco, a dialogue : it was O Lenæe, sequi Deum

printed in 1630. Wine and the Cingentem viridi tempora pampino.

other commodities in several scenes

are introduced asserting their respecIf, however, all the evils of occa- tive claims to dignity and estimation. sional intemperance are fairly taken If their arguments are not in any into account, it may be questioned, other way worth notice, they, at whether they exceed the advantages least, deserve some consideration as arising from a liberal use of wine. illustrating the literary taste of the It is also to be observed, that the age, and showing of what sort were disuse of the article in entertainments the jokes, at which those who are generally, will not have the effect of now swept from existence once preventing debauchery-young men chuckled and smiled; they, their bowill still carouse at a tavern, and, dies, their dust, their sepulchres (fata perhaps, the more, rather than the sunt data sepulchris), their names all less, for the moderation they feel it gone and forgotten. necessary, in compliance with the Beere (as he is written) is introreigning mode, to observe in other duced making a bad pun on his own places. Far be it from me to re

He says to Wine, “ Beere commend the dementation and sopi- leave, Sir.” The strength of Ale's tion of reason, and of the diviner argument (and it is better than those