ootnote 9: La Motte, Od. la Vanite.]

[Footnote 10: Od. Thalia.]

CHAP. XXIII.

AN ANSWER TO THE OBJECTION, THAT ONE CANNOT TRUST A MAN THAT GETS DRUNK.

There is a proverb amongst the Jews. "[1]_Ingrediente vino egreditur
secretum._" As the wine goes in so the secret goes out. Seneca[2] makes
the same objection. "As," says he, "new wine bursts the vessel, and the
heat makes every thing go upwards, so the force of wine is such, that it
brings to light, and discovers, what is most secret and hidden."

In answer to this objection I say, that people who are naturally secret,
are not less so after drinking. "[3]And Bacchus was not said to be the
inventor of wine, on account of the liberty of his tongue, but because
he freed our minds from disquiet, and makes them more firm and resolute
in what we undertake."

Besides, do we not see every day, people of all ranks, conditions, and
characters, get drunk, and yet we trust them with secrets, and it very
rarely happens they speak of them when they are drunk. Thus, if we
consult history, we shall learn from Seneca[4] himself, that the design
of killing Caesar was as well communicated to Tullius Cimber, who was a
great drinker, as to C. Cassius, who drank nothing but water. And though
L. Piso, governor of Rome, got frequently drunk, he, notwithstanding,
excellently acquitted himself of his duty. Augustus made no manner of
difficulty to give him secret instructions, bestowing on him the
government of Thrace, the conquest of which he entirely completed.
Tiberius, before he left Rome, where he was generally hated, in order to
retire into the Campania, made choice of Costus, who was extremely given
to wine, for governor of that city, to whom he communicated such things
as he dared not trust his own ministers with.

[Footnote 1: Voyage de Rouvie, p. 497.]

[Footnote 2: Ep. 83.]

[Footnote 3: Seneca de Tranquill.]

[Footnote 4: Seneca, ep. 83.]

CHAP. XXIV.

AN ANSWER TO THE OBJECTION, THAT DRUNKENNESS MAKES ONE INCAPABLE OF
PERFORMING THE DUTIES OF CIVIL LIFE.

I deny this absolutely, and to prove the contrary, I say, the Persians
had a custom to deliberate on things the most serious, and of the
greatest importance, after hard drinking. Tacitus reports the same thing
of the Germans. Dampier assures us, that the same custom is practised
with the inhabitants of the Isthmus Darien. And to go higher, one finds
in Homer, that during the s