28. But, all other considerations aside, _health_, the most valuable of all earthly possessions, and without which all the rest are worth nothing, bids us, not only to refrain from _excess_ in eating and drinking, but bids us to stop short of what might be indulged in without any apparent impropriety. The words of ECCLESIASTICUS ought to be read once a week by every young person in the world, and particularly by the young people of this country at this time. 'Eat modestly that which is set before thee, and _devour_ not, lest thou be _hated_. When thou sittest amongst many, 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.