[Footnote 2: Divers. cur.]

[Footnote 3: Lib. iii. p. m. 43.]

[Footnote 4: Bayle Dict. t. ii. p. 1163.]

[Footnote 5: Racine.]

CHAP. VII.

THAT WINE ACQUIRES FRIENDS, AND RECONCILES ENEMIES.

Friendship is a good so precious and valuable, and at the same time so
very rare, that one cannot take too much care in order to procure it.
The most efficacious means to do this is feasting. It is by eating and
drinking together that conversation becomes more easy and familiar; and,
to use the words of Monsieur de la Mothe le vayer, "We hold, that table
communion unites people's very souls, and causes the strictest
friendships." Unde Philotetius Crater[1]. And, in reality, can any thing
be more agreeable and engaging, than to take a friendly bottle in
pleasant and delightful company?

And therefore Cleomedes had great reason to say, "Take away the
pleasures of the table, where we open ourselves so agreeably to each
other, and you rob us of the sweetest cordial of human life[2]." This
was also the sentiment of Cicero, in his Book of old Age; of Aristotle,
in his Ethics; and Plutarch, in his Questions. Let who will, then, look
on trencher friends to be false, and say with those of whom Ovid makes
mention,

Dum fueris felix multos numerabis amicos,
Tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.[2a]

In happy times, while riches round you flow,
A thousand friends their obligations own,
But when loud adverse winds begin to blow,
And darksome clouds appear, you're left alone.

Daily experience teaches us, that one of the best means to push one's
fortune, is often to regale with those who are in credit; for, to one
that may have ruined himself by so doing, ten have made their fortunes.
We may therefore say of entertainments, that,

Haec res et jungit, et junctos servat amicos.[2b]

These unite friends, and strictly keep them so.

But what is more, wine does the office of a mediator between enemies.
Of which truth I shall instance two illustrious examples, M. Crassus
reconciled himself to Cicero at a feast; Asdrubal and Scipio did the
same on the like occasion. And one may see, in a description which a
very learned person[3] has given of Switzerland, that when the
inhabitants of that country quarrel with one another, and come to blows,
they are immediately reconciled, by returning to their cups, and no harm
ensues, but sitting up all night, and amicably getting drunk together.
The