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BRINKS.
The
ancient
beer
of
Egypt
is
compared by
DIodorus
Siculus
to
wine
on
account
of
its
strength
and
flavour.
This
Egyptian
beer
is
indeed
spoken
of
by
Herodotus
as
barley
wine,
a
title
which
still
sur-
vives
in
some
of
the
windows
of
our
public-houses.
At
present
beer
is
the
habitual
drink
of
the
English,
German,
Dutch,
and
Scandinavian
races.
A
drink,
better
called
barley
water
than
beer,
appears
to
have
been
the
favourite
beveragre
of
the
Danes
and
Ancrlo-
Saxons,
our
ancestors
in
the
remote
past.
Before
Christianity
had
enlightened
and
corrected
their
views
about
the
delights
of
a
future
state,
these
benighted
folk
supposed
that
the
chief
felicity
enjoyed
by
the
good
—
in
those
days
synonymous
with
the
brave
—
after
their
death
and
transplantation
into
Odin's
paradise,
would
be
to
drink
in
large
goblets
large
quantities
of
ale.
Perpetual
intoxication
thus
entered
largely
into
their
conception
of
celestial
joy.
Beer
as
we
understand
it—
modified,
that
is,
by
the
irttroduction
of
the
hop
—
was
probably
little
known
in
England
before
the
beginning
of
the
sixteenth
cen-
tury.
The
varieties
of
beer
at
the
present
time
are
beer.
Perhaps
as
good
a
remark
as
any
on
this
subject
was
made
by
a
modern
tradesman
who,
wishing
to
sell
both,
explained
that,
while
strongly
advocating
the
introduction
of
wine,
he
did
not
at
all
intend
to
depreciate
the
merits
of
our
national
beverage,
beer.
Where,
he
continued,
plenty
of
out-door
exercise
is
taken,
and
little
intellectual
effort
is
demanded,
good
beer
is
perhaps
the
most
wholesome
of
aTl
drinks
;
and
therefore
he
advised
the
"
labouring
man,"
who
could
not
probably
afford to
buy
wine,
to
drink
beer,
while
others,
who
might
be
supposed
able
to
afford
wine,
were
warned
that
they
could
not
drinkxbeer
with
impunity.