l venture to say that a glass of beer gives
savour to the humblest crust, and comforts Corydon, lamenting the
inconstancy of Phyllis? Who will come forward and strike an attitude and
prove the benefits of the grape? (The attitude is essential, for without
it you cannot hope to impress your fellow men.) Rise up in your might,
ye lovers of hop and grape and rye--rise up and slay the Egyptians. Be
honest and thank your stars for the cup that cheers. Bacchus was not a
pot-bellied old sot, but a beautiful youth with vine-leaves in his hair,
Bacchus the lover of flowers; and Ariadne was charming.

* * *

The country about Jerez undulates in just such an easy comfortable
fashion as you would expect. It is scenery of the gentlest and
pleasantest type, sinuous; little hills rising with rounded lines and
fertile valleys. The vines cover the whole land, creeping over the brown
soil fantastically, black stumps, shrivelled and gnarled, tortured into
uncouth shapes; they remind you of the creeping things in a naturalist's
museum, of giant spiders and great dried centipedes and scorpions. But
imagine the vineyards later, when the spring has stirred the earth with
fecundity! The green shoots tenderly forth; at first it is all too
delicate for a colour, it is but a mist of indescribable tenuity; and
gradually the leaves burst out and trail along the ground with
ever-increasing luxuriance; and then it is a rippling sea of passionate
verdure.

But I liked Jerez best towards evening, when the sun had set and the
twilight glided through the tortuous alleys like a woman dressed in
white. Then, as I walked in the silent streets, narrow and steep, with
their cobble-paving, the white houses gained a new aspect. There seemed
not a soul in the world, and the loneliness was more intoxicating than
all their wines; the shining sun was gone, and the sky lost its blue
richness, it became so pale that you felt it like a face of death--and
the houses looked like long rows of tombs. We walked through the
deserted streets, I and the woman dressed in white, side by side
silently; our footsteps made no sound upon the stones. And Jerez was
wrapped in a ghostly shroud. Ah, the beautiful things I have seen which
other men have not!

XXXVIII

[Sidenote: Cadiz]

I admire the strenuous tourist who sets out in the morning with his
well-thumbed Baedeker to examine the curiosities of a foreign town, but
I do not follow in his steps; his eagerness aft