that would admit of no delay. He
then called for some coffee, and launched out into the virtues of that
berry, which, he said, in cold phlegmatic constitutions, like his, dried
up the superfluous moisture, and braced the relaxed nerves. He told me
it was utterly unknown to the ancients; and derived its name from
an Arabian word, which I might easily perceive by the sound and
termination. From this topic he transferred his disquisitions to the
verb drink, which he affirmed was improperly applied to the taking of
coffee, inasmuch as people did not drink, but sip or sipple that liquor;
that the genuine meaning of drinking is to quench one's thirst, or
commit a debauch by swallowing wine; that the Latin word, which conveyed
the same idea, was bibere or potare, and that of the Greeks pinein or
poteein, though he was apt to believe they were differently used on
different occasions: for example--to drink a vast quantity, or, as the
vulgar express it, to drink an ocean of liquor, was in Latin potare,
and in Greek poteein; and, on the other hand, to use it moderately,
was bibere and pinein;--that this was only a conjecture of his,
which, however, seemed to be supported by the word bibulous, which is
particularly applied to the pores of the skin, and can only drink a very
small quantity of the circumambient moisture, by reason of the smallness
of their diameters;--whereas, from the verb poteein is derived the
substantive potamos, which signifies a river, or vast quantity
of liquor. I could not help smiling at this learned and important
investigation; and, to recommend myself the more to my new acquaintance,
whose disposition I was by this time well informed of, I observed that,
what he alleged, did not, to the best of my remembrance, appear in
the writings of the ancients; for Horace uses the words poto and bibo
indifferently for the same purpose, as in the twentieth Ode of his first
Book.

"Vile potabis modicis sabinum cantharis--
--Et praelo domitam caleno tu bibes uvam."

That I had never heard of the verb poteein, but that potamos, potema,
and potos, were derived from pino, poso, pepoka, in consequence of
which, the Greek poets never use any other word for festal drinking.
Homer describes Nestor at his cups in these words,

"Nestora d'ouk elathen jache pinonta pcrempes."

And Anacreon mentions it on the same occasion always in every page.

"Pinonti de oinon hedun.
Otan pino ton oinon.