EVILS OF DRUNKENNESS. And in his Steward he says—
For much wine is the cause of many crimes.
And Crobylus, in his Female Deserter, says—
What pleasure, prithee tell me, can there be
In getting always drunk? in, while still living,
Yourself depriving thus of all your senses;
The greatest good which nature e'er has given?
Therefore it is not right to get drunk; for "A city which has been governed by a democracy," says Plato, in the eighth book of his Polity, "when it has thirsted for freedom, if it meets with bad cupbearers to help it, and if, drinking of the desired draught too deeply, it becomes intoxicated, then punishes its magistrates if they are not very gentle indeed, and if they do not allow it a great deal of licence, blaming them as wicked and oligarchical; and those people who obey the magistrates it insults." And, in the sixth book of his Laws, he says—"A city ought to be like a well-mixed goblet, in which the wine which is poured in rages; but being restrained by the opposite and sober deity, enters into a good partnership with it, and so produces a good and moderate drink."
62. For profligate debauchery is engendered by drunkenness. On which account Antiphanes, in his Arcadia, says—
For it, O father, never can become
A sober man to seek debauchery,
Nor yet to serious cares to give his mind,
When it is rather time to drink and feast.
But he that cherishes superhuman thoughts,
Trusting to small and miserable riches,
Shall at some future time himself discover
That he is only like his fellow-men,
If he looks, like a doctor, at the tokens,
And sees which way his veins go, up or down,
On which the life of mortal man depends.
And, in his Æolus, mentioning with indignation the evil deeds which those who are great drinkers do, he says—
Macareus, when smitten with unholy love
For one of his own sisters, for a while
Repress'd the evil thought, and check'd himself;
But after some short time he wine admitted
To be his general, under whose sole lead
Audacity takes the place of prudent counsel,
And so by night his purpose he accomplish'd.
