are forced to throw it up again every moment. Per haps you may imagine that they quit their company on this account, but they do not; for, like fwine or dogs, no fooner is the wine off their 'ftomachs, than they again supply it with another charge, which being alfo caft up, a third is put in its place; and thus continually while day or night lafts.

LET us confider a little the condition into which they have brought themselves not one of them is able to ftand; their knees fink under them; no longer can their staggering legs fupport them; their hands cannot perform their office; their tongues, fwelled in their mouths, can do nothing but stammer. Their mouths and throats enflamed and parched with heat, have loft their natural fupplies of moisture. Their eyes grown dizzy, and almost extinct, no longer can distinguish objects, whi ch in confufion prefent themselves before them, and feem, as confcious of their owners folly, to fcorn the guiding them. Their voices, ftifled on one hand by these vapours the ftomach is perpetually exhaling from wine already drank, and on the other by the fresh draughts of it which they inceffantly are fwallowing, can find no paffage out, nor any longer form a found.

In this fecret condition, you, doubtless, conclude, that they will caufe themfelves each to be carried to his feparate home, (for fo far are they from being able to find the way to their own houfes, that there is not one amongst them could find out the door of

the

There, you

the room you fee them affembled in.) will fay, they may work off their wine in quiet and at their eafe. Reafon, it is true, points out this wife advice, and fpeaks this language. But are

thefe worthy imps of Bacchus in a ftate fit to hear reafon? Alas! they do not even hear themselves; and how can reafon have effect with beings much more brutalized than even beats themselves; on men who fix it as their highest point of honour, to drown her in their wine? No; they have loft her quite; and therefore, far from thinking of retreating, they, on the contrary, think themfelves but juft set in, and now prepare for a more perfect courfe. Behold them now. To the large glaffes with which they feemed already to have ferved themselves in fuch abundance, fucceed a round of tankards, of a much greater fize. Each takes one, fills it up, and quaffs it with his neighbour, and the company. To this they name the health, or, to speak more properly, the death of each other, and fwallow it amain: to this another round fucceeds; another after that; and fo to five or fix. Till by these feats, warmed to attempt ftill greater, they think thefe tankards, large as they are, too fmall. The most capacious

bowl that can be found in the town must now be brought; no fooner brought than filled; no fooner filled than emptied at a draught: for that is the law thefe fwine impofe upon themfelves, under a penalty of repetition.

BUT as they cannot every one get bowls, nor can they stay with patience till it come round to them, they drink, whilft they are waiting for its revolution, fome out of their fhoes, fome out of their flippers, fome out of their hats and caps, fome out of their boots. Some take up huge pitchers, and -drink them at a draught: fome tofs off funnels full, and fome drink out of chamber-pots. Some, in fhort, make themselves be carried to the cellar, whi ther they have no power to go themselves, and lying down, with their mouths underneath the tap of the wine barrel, there guzzle down immeafurable quantities.

NATURE, in the mean time, who cannot ftand the attacks of fo much violence, performs, on her part, all her ufual functions, which make the filth of this affembly a true Augæan ftable, whofe fmell is a thousand times more naufeous, infectious and difagreeable, than any thing that was ever produced in Hell; fo that not even the ftrongest man, or the moft robust constitution could endure to stay in it. But let us finish up this picture, which hitherto my pencil has only imperfectly sketched.

It is not enough thefe Bacchanalian heroes fhould drown themselves, as you obferve they do, in wine, in order to arrive more quickly in that Hell, which they fo warmly figh for: but that they may obtain fome image of it, which in fome degree may come. near the truth, and give them an image of thofe plea

fures

fures which there await them, they are going prefently to fwallow fire and smoke, which are the food and ordinary repafts of the inhabitants of that gloomy dwelling. Already do I fee the waiters preparing every thing for this new debauch. Behold the pipes, fee next the chaffing dishes, and last behold tobacco on the table. Each takes his pipe, fills and fets fire to it, and feems to find fresh delight from fucking in long draughts of a moft hateful fmoke, whofe detestable smell and peftilential tafte would poifon, or drive away the very devils themfelves. In short, the heavy mist formed by this black and ugly smoak, fills and infects the room to a degree, that foon obliges thofe who are not accustomed to it to leave it, unless they, like thefe drunkards we have feen,. would difgorge all they have upon their ftomachs.

That

IT is true, they do, indeed, under pretence of a prevention to this effect, fo common to tobacco, make ufe of a peculiar remedy: but it is a remedy. a thousand times worfe than the diftemper. is the use of fpirituous liquors: thofe liquid and devouring flames, which will complete the burning up their ftomach and inteftines, already more than half confumed with drunkenness and debauchery. Hark! they are calling for them now! Now they are brought! See with what relish they fwallow, in great draughts, a fample of thofe fires which fhall devour them eternally. What delight they exprefs: hark! how they fmack their lips, as if they had been tafting.

C. 3

tasting the most delicious and moft healthful liquors. Hear with what lavish praife they found its commendations, as the moft excellent reftorative that human: wit or understanding ever could difcover. This is, fay they, the real water of life, the true divine cordial, the grand elixir. The more we drink, the better we fhall be. LET US THEN DRINK OUR

FILL.

You would try to no purpose to turn them from their miferable way of living, by fhewing them the fatal confequences of it. Such as the ruin of their. families, and the deftruction of their conftitutions, painful and incurable diftempers, as the gout, the a, poplexy, the dropfy, the confumption and the pally, the inflammation of the bowels, the weakening of the nerves, and feveral other diseases, as painful as they are inevitable from fuch debaucheries. No,. this is preaching to the winds: true martyrs, true heroes, as they are, of the devil, they intrepidly expose themselves, nay even with delight, to the most cruel misfortunes which attend them; and when they are attacked by them, fupport them with the greatest refignation, for the love they have for him, and not to lofe the place which he has deftined for them in his kingdom, and which they have so juftly acquired.

CHAP.