Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford | Page 9

reach not thine hand out first of all. _How little is
sufficient for man well taught! A wholesome sleep_ cometh of a
temperate belly. Such a man riseth up in the morning, and is well at
ease with himself. Be not too hasty of meats; for excess of meats
bringeth sickness, and choleric disease cometh of gluttony. By surfeit
have many perished, and he that dieteth himself prolongeth his life.

Show not thy valiantness in wine; for wine hath destroyed many. Wine
measurably taken, and in season, bringeth gladness and cheerfulness of
mind; but drinking with excess maketh bitterness of mind, brawlings
and scoldings.' How true are these words! How well worthy of a
constant place in our memories! Yet, what pains have been taken to
apologise for a life contrary to these precepts! And, good God! what
punishment can be too great, what mark of infamy sufficiently signal,
for those pernicious villains of talent, who have employed that talent in
the composition of _Bacchanalian songs_; that is to say, pieces of fine
and captivating writing in praise of one of the most odious and
destructive vices in the black catalogue of human depravity!
29. In the passage which I have just quoted from chap. xxxi. of
ECCLESIASTICUS, it is said, that 'wine, measurably taken, and in
season,' is a proper thing. This, and other such passages of the Old
Testament, have given a handle to drunkards, and to extravagant people,
to insist, that God intended that wine should be commonly drunk. No
doubt of that. But, then, he could intend this only in countries in which
he had given wine, and to which he had given no cheaper drink except
water. If it be said, as it truly may, that, by the means of the sea and the
winds, he has given wine to all countries, I answer that this gift is of no
use to us now, because our government steps in between the sea and the
winds and us. Formerly, indeed, the case was different; and, here I am
about to give you, incidentally, a piece of historical knowledge, which
you will not have acquired from HUME, GOLDSMITH, or any other
of the romancers called historians. Before that unfortunate event, the
Protestant Reformation, as it is called, took place, the price of RED
WINE, in England, was fourpence a gallon, Winchester measure; and
of WHITE WINE, sixpence a gallon. At the same time the pay of a
labouring man per day, as fixed by law, was fourpence. Now, when a
labouring man could earn four quarts of good wine in a day, it was,
doubtless, allowable, even in England, for people in the middle rank of
life to drink wine _rather commonly_; and, therefore, in those happy
days of England, these passages of Scripture were applicable enough.
But, now, when we have got a Protestant government, which by the
taxes which it makes people pay to it, causes the eighth part of a gallon
of wine to cost more than the pay of a labouring man for a day; now,
this passage of Scripture is not applicable to us. There is no '_season_'

in which we can take wine without ruining ourselves, however
'_measurably_' we may take it; and I beg you to regard, as perverters of
Scripture and as seducers of youth, all those who cite passages like that
above cited, in justification of, or as an apology for, the practice of
wine-drinking in England.
30. I beseech you to look again and again at, and to remember every
word of, the passage which I have just quoted from the book of
ECCLESIASTICUS. How completely have been, and are, its words
verified by my experience and in my person! How little of eating and
drinking is sufficient for me! How wholesome is my sleep! How early
do I rise; and how '_well at ease_' am I 'with myself!' I should not have
deserved such blessings, if I had withheld from my neighbours a
knowledge of the means by which they were obtained; and, therefore,
this knowledge I have been in the constant habit of communicating.
When one gives a dinner to a company, it is an extraordinary affair, and
is intended, by sensible men, for purposes other than those of eating
and drinking. But, in general, in the every-day life, despicable are those
who suffer any part of their happiness to depend upon what they have
to eat or to drink, provided they have _a sufficiency of wholesome
food_; despicable is the man, and worse than despicable the youth, that
would make any sacrifice, however small, whether of money or of time,
or of anything else, in order to secure a dinner different from that which
he would have had without such sacrifice. Who, what man, ever
performed