Howsoever you say, if this be true, that wine and strong drink have such virtue to expel fear and sorrow, and to exhilarate the mind, ever hereafter let’s drink and be merry.

[4312] “Prome reconditum, Lyde strenua, caecubum,
        Capaciores puer huc affer Scyphos,
        Et Chia vina aut Lesbia.”

       “Come, lusty Lyda, fill’s a cup of sack,
        And, sirrah drawer, bigger pots we lack,
        And Scio wines that have so good a smack.”

I say with him in [4313]A.  Gellius, “let us maintain the vigour of our souls with a moderate cup of wine,” [4314]_Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis_, “and drink to refresh our mind; if there be any cold sorrow in it, or torpid bashfulness, let’s wash it all away.”—­Nunc vino pellite curas; so saith [4315]Horace, so saith Anacreon,

       “[Greek:  Methuonta gar me keisthai
        polu kreisson ae thanonta.]”

Let’s drive down care with a cup of wine:  and so say I too, (though I drink none myself) for all this may be done, so that it be modestly, soberly, opportunely used:  so that “they be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,” which our [4316]Apostle forewarns; for as Chrysostom well comments on that place, ad laetitiam datum est vinum, non ad ebrietatem, ’tis for mirth wine, but not for madness:  and will you know where, when, and how that is to be understood? Vis discere ubi bonum sit vinum?  Audi quid dicat Scriptura, hear the Scriptures, “Give wine to them that are in sorrow,” or as Paul bid Timothy drink wine for his stomach’s sake, for concoction, health, or some such honest occasion.  Otherwise, as [4317] Pliny telleth us; if singular moderation be not had, [4318]"nothing so pernicious, ’tis mere vinegar, blandus daemon, poison itself.”  But hear a more fearful doom, Habac. ii. 15. and 16.  “Woe be to him that makes his neighbour drunk, shameful spewing shall be upon his glory.”  Let not good fellows triumph therefore (saith Matthiolus) that I have so much commended wine, if it be immoderately taken, “instead of making glad, it confounds both body and soul, it makes a giddy head, a sorrowful heart.”  And ’twas well said of the poet of old, “Vine causeth mirth and grief,” [4319]nothing so good for some, so bad for others, especially as [4320]one observes, qui a causa calida male habent, that are hot or inflamed.  And so of spices, they alone, as I have showed, cause head-melancholy themselves, they must not use wine as an [4321]ordinary drink, or in their diet.  But to determine with Laurentius, c. 8. de melan. wine is bad for madmen, and such as are troubled with heat in their inner parts or brains; but to melancholy, which is cold (as most is), wine, soberly used, may be very good.

I may say the same of the decoction of China roots, sassafras, sarsaparilla, guaiacum:  China, saith Manardus, makes a good colour in the face, takes away melancholy, and all infirmities proceeding from cold, even so sarsaparilla provokes sweat mightily, guaiacum dries, Claudinus, consult. 89. & 46. Montanus, Capivaccius, consult. 188.  Scoltzii, make frequent and good use of guaiacum and China, [4322]"so that the liver be not incensed,” good for such as are cold, as most melancholy men are, but by no means to be mentioned in hot.