urged, the other replied, _At
jam alii fecere idem, erit illi illa res honori_, 'tis now no fault, there
be so many brave examples to bear one out; 'tis a credit to have a strong
brain, and carry his liquor well; the sole contention who can drink most,
and fox his fellow the soonest. 'Tis the _summum bonum_ of our tradesmen,
their felicity, life, and soul, _Tanta dulcedine affectant_, saith Pliny,
_lib. 14. cap. 12._ _Ut magna pars non aliud vitae praemium intelligat_,
their chief comfort, to be merry together in an alehouse or tavern, as our
modern Muscovites do in their mead-inns, and Turks in their coffeehouses,
which much resemble our taverns; they will labour hard all day long to be
drunk at night, and spend _totius anni labores_, as St. Ambrose adds, in a
tippling feast; convert day into night, as Seneca taxes some in his times,
_Pervertunt officia anoctis et lucis_; when we rise, they commonly go to
bed, like our antipodes,

"Nosque ubi primus equis oriens afflavit anhelis,
Illis sera rubens ascendit lumina vesper."

So did Petronius in Tacitus, Heliogabalus in Lampridius.

[1418] ------"Noctes vigilibat ad ipsum
Mane, diem totum stertebat?"------

------"He drank the night away
Till rising dawn, then snored out all the day."

Snymdiris the Sybarite never saw the sun rise or set so much as once in
twenty years. Verres, against whom Tully so much inveighs, in winter he
never was _extra tectum vix extra lectum_, never almost out of bed, [1419]
still wenching and drinking; so did he spend his time, and so do myriads in
our days. They have _gymnasia bibonum_, schools and rendezvous; these
centaurs and Lapithae toss pots and bowls as so many balls; invent new
tricks, as sausages, anchovies, tobacco, caviar, pickled oysters, herrings,
fumados, &c.: innumerable salt meats to increase their appetite, and study
how to hurt themselves by taking antidotes [1420]"to carry their drink the
better; [1421]and when nought else serves, they will go forth, or be
conveyed out, to empty their gorge, that they may return to drink afresh."
They make laws, _insanas leges, contra bibendi fallacias_, and [1422]brag
of it when they have done, crowning that man that is soonest gone, as their
drunken predecessors have done, --[1423]_quid ego video_? Ps. _Cum corona
Pseudolum ebrium tuum_--. And when they are dead, will have a can of wine
with [1424]Maron's old woman to be engraven on their tombs. S