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CUPS AND THEIB CUSTOMS.
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brewage (and a very pleasant and commendable cup the
great master of the gentle art will drink with, them),
or when pious Master Herbert chances to meet with a
man he liketh, who hath the manner of Wing all things
for the good that is in them, and who, like his greater
companion, (for no one in that quality of mind was
greater than Herbert,) had a respect for what, in others,
were occasions of stumbling, could use good gifts with-
out abusing them, and think the lo?ing-cup of spiced
wine an excellent good cordial for the heart, or when
Dr. Donne (scarce a man in England wiser than he),
laying aside for the time his abstruse learning, mixed a
mighty cup of gillyflower sack, and talked oyer it with
Sir Keselm Digby (hardly a lesser man than himself),
of the good gifts lavishly offered, but by some rudely
abused, and by others unthankfally taken, discussed
the merits of plants and fruits, or the virtues, harder to
be discovered, of stones and metals, while they mar-
velled at that scheme which adapted each body, animate
or inanimate, to the station ordained to it, and at the
infinite goodness of Him who made man head of all,
and gave Mm power and discernment that he might
show, by the moderate use of things healthy and
nourishing, the wisdom of Him who ordained them to
cheer and to cherish. A great regard for the whole-
some had Sir Kenelm Digby, whose carefulness in the
concoction of his favourite cup was such that he could
not brew it aright if he had not Hyde-Park water—a
rule of much value in Sir Kenelm*s day, no doubt j but
modern
€€
improvements/* unfortunately, interfere with