was to be put to her choice, to drink wine or die, she
should make no manner of hesitation, but prefer death.

De nimia sapientia libera nos domine.

[[Footnote a: Catullus XXVII.5-6.]]

[Footnote 1: Rem. sur Rabel. t. iv. ch. 93.]

[Footnote 2: Page 777.]

[Footnote 3: Du Mont. Voyag. t. iii. let. 5.]

[Footnote 4: Chaumont Voyag. de Siam.]

[Footnote 5: Bayle Dict. t. ii. p. 1266.]

[Footnote 6: AElian, lib. ii. ch. 33.]

[Footnote 7: Du Mont. Voyag. t. iii. lit. 5.]

[Footnote 8: Rec. choise d'Hist.]

CHAP. XXVII.

RIGOROUS LAWS AGAINST WINE AND DRUNKENNESS.

It is easy to imagine, that princes who did not love wine themselves,
would make very rigorous laws against drunkenness, and fall into that
fault which Horace speaks of.

Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt.[a]

But this maxim, _Nullum violentum durabile_, has been verified a great
many times, upon this subject of drunkenness, for all the laws made
against it have not long subsisted.

Pentheus[1], king of Thebes, endeavoured to extirpate entirely the
custom of getting drunk; but he did not find his account in it, for he
was very ill-treated by his subjects for his pains.

Lycurgus[2], king of Thrace, commanded all the vines of the country to
be cut up; for which he was justly punished by Bacchus. He also made
laws against drunkenness, which one may reckon amongst the bad ones that
he instituted. As,

I. _The using women in common._

II. _The nudity of young women in certain solemn festivals._

"Pittacus[3], one of the wise men of Greece, commanded, that he who
committed a fault when he was drunk, should suffer a double punishment.
And amongst the laws of Solon, there was one, which condemned to death
the chief magistrate if he got drunk. Amongst the Indians, who only just
touch wine in the ceremonies of their sacrifices, the law commands, that
the woman who killed one of their kings, should get drunk, and marry his
successor."

[4]The Athenians had also very severe laws against those that should get
drunk; but one may say, these laws resembled those of Draco, which were
written rather with blood than ink.

We come now to the Turks. Sir Paul Ricaut[5] tells us several
particulars on this head. Amurath, says he, resolved, in the year 1634,
to forbid entirely the use of wine. He put out a severe edict, which
commanded all the houses where they sold wine to be razed, the barr