What Story is this you are telling me of?

_Ch. Crysippus_ is reported to have been so intent upon his logical
Subtilties, that he would have been starved at Table, unless his Maid
_Melissa_ had put the Meat into his Mouth.

_Au._ He did not deserve to have his Life sav'd; but if Silence is an
Offence to you, and you love a noisy Feast, you have gotten that will
make one.

_Ch._ I remember I have. That's very well minded: We must drink more
freely, we ought to drink more largely, more Wine and less Water.

_You have hit on the Matter._

_Au._ You have hit the Nail on the Head. You are in the Right. You have
hit the Mark. For,

_Foecundi calices quem non fecere disertum?_

_Ch._ That is very learnedly spoken, _Austin_, and so indeed is all that
comes from you; but since we are fallen into a Discourse concerning
Wine, since we have happen'd to make mention of Wine, I have a mind to
ask you, for what Reason the Ancients, who will have _Bacchus_ the
Inventor of Wine, call him the God of the Poets? What has that drunken
God to do with Poets, who are the Votaries of the Virgin Muses?

_Au._ By _Bacchus_, this is a Question fit to be put over a Bottle. But
I see very well, what your Question drives at.

_Ch._ What, prithee?

_Au._ You very cunningly put a Question about Wine, by a _French_ Trick,
which I believe you learn'd at _Paris_, that you may save your Wine by
that Means. Ah, go your Way, I see you're a Sophister; you have made a
good Proficiency in that School.

_Ch._ Well, I take all your Jokes; I'll return the like to you, when
Opportunity shall offer. But to the Matter in Hand.

_Au._ I'll go on, but I'll drink first, for it is absurd to dispute
about a tippling Question with a dry Throat. Here's to you _Christian_.
Half this Cup to you.

_Ch._ I thank you kindly. God bless it to you, much good may it do you.

_Au._ Now I'm ready, at your Service. I'll do it as well as I can after
my Manner. That they have given a Boy's Face to _Bacchus_, has this
Mystery in it; that Wine being drank, takes away Cares and Vexations
from our Minds, and adds a Sort of a Chearfulness to them. And for this
Reason, it adds a Sort of Youthfulness even to old Men, in that it makes
them more chearful, and of a better Complexion. The same thing _Horace_
in many Places, and particularly testifies in these Verses:

_Ad mare cum veni, generosum et lene requiro,
Quod curas abigat, quod cum spe divite manet.