When the reckless world is sleeping,
    And the star of eve shines gay;
  While the night winds softly creeping
    O’er the waters, die away;
  When the moonbeams softly playing,
    Silver o’er the glistening rill;
  ’Tis to thee my thoughts are straying,
    For my hopes are with thee still.

  When the fragrant breath of morning
    Wanders o’er the silent dews;
  And flowers the vale adorning,
    Do their balmy sweets diffuse. 
  When the orb of day appearing,
    From behind the distant hill,
  Gilds the landscape bright and cheering,
    E’en my hopes are with thee still.

Leeds.

J.B.  Walker.

* * * * *

ANTIQUITY OF MALT LIQUOR.

Malt liquor appears to have had its origin in the attention paid by an eastern sovereign to the comfort and health of his soldiers; as we are informed by the historian Xenophon, that “the virtuous Cyrus” having observed the good effects that water in which parched barley had been steeped, produced, exhorted and commanded his troops to drink this liquor; the historian entitled it “Maza.”  It is highly probable that Cyrus adopted this drink to counteract the ill effects of impure and foul water (which had done lasting injury to other warriors of his time), which is so common in warm, sunny climates; as Pliny informs us, that if water be impure or corrupted, by putting fried barley into it, in less than two hours, it will be pure and sweet; that its bad effects will have evaporated, and that it then may be drunk with perfect safety; he further adds that, this is the reason why we are in the habit of “putting barley-meal into the ‘wine-strainers’ through which we pass our wines, that they may be refined, purified, and drawn the sooner.”  The information conveyed to our readers by Pliny, may be made of great practical use and benefit by mariners, to whom sweet water is such a desideratum; and is as important to those who traverse the arid deserts of Africa, where sweet water is so seldom found.

That the ancients used the “juice of the grape,” and that almost as a common drink, has never been doubted by the most cursory reader of history; the knowledge of this liquor being nearly coeval with the first formation of society.  In the Book of Genesis we read that Noah after the flood planted a vineyard, “manufactured” wine, and got intoxicated with this “nectar fit for gods.”  Beer can likewise boast of as great antiquity.  Its use was not unknown by the Egyptians; as we are informed by Herodotus that the people of Egypt made use of a kind of wine made from dried barley, because no vines grew in that country.  According to Tacitus, in his time beer was the common drink of the Germans, who drank it in preference to that more stimulating (if not more nutritious) liquor, wine.  We are also informed by Pliny, that it was made and was in common use amongst the Gauls, and by many of their neighbours.  The name he gave to this drink was “cerevisia” which evidently alludes to the article from which it was composed.  Although these nations held this liquor in such estimation, there has been no record to inform us of their mode of preparing it.