THROUGH A GLASS LIGHTLY
far out of my way to take the wages of that gentler sovereign of the senses, Claret. Between comparison and contrast is a great gulf, the one being odious and futile, the other obvious and of purpose. So in men’s minds shall these two wines be still at strife for mastery, and none can dogmatically declare who is premier, and it shall remain a question of individual palate till the end. Also a man's mood shall set now this and now that in the foremost place. For if he would go down in a fiery-heated flood, oblivious of all save the glory of his submerging, by all means let him plunge into a sea of Port. He shall the quicker reach the shade, and once there, whether it be grape or gooseberry is all one. But there be times and times, and there lurks in all of us the longing to scale Olympus, and be lifted
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