and
reproach, and stop the dispute that is running on to sophistical and
unpleasant wrangling, and bridle all babbling declamatory altercations,
so that the company may be freed of noise and quietly composed.

QUESTION IX. THAT IT WAS THE CUSTOM OF THE GREEKS AS WELL AS PERSIANS TO
DEBATE OF STATE AFFAIRS AT THEIR ENTERTAINMENTS.

NICOSTRATUS, GLAUCIAS.

At Nicostratus's table we discoursed of those matters which the
Athenians were to debate of in their next assembly. And one of the
company saying, It is the Persian fashion, sir, to debate midst your
cups; And why, said Glaucias rejoining, not the Grecian fashion? For it
was a Greek that said,

After your belly's full, your counsel's best.

And they were Greeks who with Agamemnon besieged Troy, to whom, whilst
they were eating and drinking,

Old Nestor first began a grave debate;
("Iliad," vii. 324.)

and he himself advised the king before to call the commanders together
for the same purpose:--

For the commanders, sir, a feast prepare,
And see who counsels best, and follow him.
(Ibid, ix. 70 and 74.)

Therefore Greece, having a great many excellent institutions, and
zealously following the customs of the ancients, hath laid the
foundations of her polities in wine. For the assemblies in Crete called
Andria, those in Sparta called Phiditia, were secret consultations
and aristocratical assemblies; such, I suppose, as the Prytaneum and
Thesmothesium here at Athens. And not different from these is that
night-meeting, which Plato mentions, of the best and most polite men,
to which the greatest, the most considerable and puzzling matters are
assigned. And those

Who, when they do design to seek their rest,
To Mercury their just libations pour,
("Odyssey," vii. 138.)

do they not join reason and wine together, since, when they are about to
retire, they make their vows to the wisest god, as if he was present and
particularly president over their actions? But the ancients indeed call
Bacchus the good counsellor, as if he had no need of Mercury; and for
his sake they named the night [Greek omitted] as it were, GOOD ADVISER.

QUESTION X. WHETHER THEY DID WELL WHO DELIBERATED MIDST THEIR CUPS.

GLAUCIAS, NICOSTRATUS.

Whilst Glaucias was discoursing thus, the former tumultuous talk
seemed to be pretty well lulled; and that it might be quite forgotten,
Nicostratus started another question, saying, he never val