ut
necessary affairs, no labor, should distract and seize it, lest they
should corrupt and sour its humors, Nature not having had time enough
for settling what has been disturbed. For, sir, all men have not the
command of that happy ease and tranquillity which Epicurus's philosophy
procured him; for many great incumbrances seize almost upon every one
every day, or at least some disquiets; and it is not safe to trust the
body with any of these, when it is in such a condition and disturbance,
presently after the fury and heat of the embrace is over. Let, according
to his opinion, the happy and immortal deity sit at ease and never mind
us; but if we regard the laws of our country, we must not dare to enter
into the temple and offer sacrifice, if but a little before we have done
any such thing. It is fit therefore to let night and sleep intervene,
and after there is a sufficient space of time past between, to rise
as it were pure and new, and (as Democritus was wont to say) "with new
thoughts upon the new day."

QUESTION VII. WHY NEW WINE DOTH NOT INEBRIATE AS SOON AS OTHER.

PLUTARCH, HIS FATHER, HAGIAS, ARISTAENETUS, AND OTHER YOUTH.

At Athens on the eleventh day of February (thence called [Greek omitted]
THE BARREL-OPENING), they began to taste their new wine; and in old
times (as it appears), before they drank, they offered some to the gods,
and prayed that that cordial liquor might prove good and wholesome. By
us Thebans the month is named [Greek omitted], and it is our custom upon
the sixth day to sacrifice to our good Genius and then taste our new
wine, after the zephyr has done blowing; for that wind makes wine
ferment more than any other, and the liquor that can bear this
fermentation is of a strong body and will keep well. My father
offered the usual sacrifice, and when after supper the young men, my
fellow-students, commended the wine, he started this question: Why
does not new wine inebriate as soon as other? This seemed a paradox and
incredible to most of us; but Hagias said, that luscious things were
cloying and would presently satiate, and therefore few could drink
enough to make them drunk; for when once the thirst is allayed, the
appetite would be quickly palled by that unpleasant liquor; for that a
luscious is different from a sweet taste, even the poet intimates, when
he says,

With luscious wine, and with sweet milk and cheese.
("Odyssey, xx. 69.)

Wine at first is sweet; afterward,