urageous, [4297]"whetteth
the wit," if moderately taken, (and as Plutarch [4298]saith, _Symp. 7.
quaest. 12._) "it makes those which are otherwise dull, to exhale and
evaporate like frankincense, or quicken" (Xenophon adds) [4299]as oil doth
fire. [4300]"A famous cordial" Matthiolus in Dioscoridum calls it, "an
excellent nutriment to refresh the body, it makes a good colour, a
flourishing age, helps concoction, fortifies the stomach, takes away
obstructions, provokes urine, drives out excrements, procures sleep, clears
the blood, expels wind and cold poisons, attenuates, concocts, dissipates
all thick vapours, and fuliginous humours." And that which is all in all to
my purpose, it takes away fear and sorrow. [4301]_Curas edaces dissipat
Evius_. "It glads the heart of man," Psal. civ. 15. _hilaritatis dulce
seminarium_. Helena's bowl, the sole nectar of the gods, or that true
nepenthes in [4302]Homer, which puts away care and grief, as Oribasius _5.
Collect, cap. 7._ and some others will, was nought else but a cup of good
wine. "It makes the mind of the king and of the fatherless both one, of the
bond and freeman, poor and rich; it turneth all his thoughts to joy and
mirth, makes him remember no sorrow or debt, but enricheth his heart, and
makes him speak by talents," Esdras iii. 19, 20, 21. It gives life itself,
spirits, wit, &c. For which cause the ancients called Bacchus, _Liber pater
a liberando_, and [4303]sacrificed to Bacchus and Pallas still upon an
altar. [4304]"Wine measurably drunk, and in time, brings gladness and
cheerfulness of mind, it cheereth God and men," Judges ix. 13. _laetitiae
Bacchus dator_, it makes an old wife dance, and such as are in misery to
forget evil, and be [4305]merry.

"Bacchus et afflictis requiem mortalibus affert,
Crura licet duro compede vincta forent."

"Wine makes a troubled soul to rest,
Though feet with fetters be opprest."

Demetrius in Plutarch, when he fell into Seleucus's hands, and was prisoner
in Syria, [4306]"spent his time with dice and drink that he might so ease
his discontented mind, and avoid those continual cogitations of his present
condition wherewith he was tormented." Therefore Solomon, Prov. xxxi. 6,
bids "wine be given to him that is ready to [4307]perish, and to him that
hath grief of heart, let him drink that he forget his poverty, and remember
his misery no more." _Sollicitis animis onus eximit_, it easeth a burdened
soul, no