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IV
PREFACE.
Bacclianology
(if
the
term
please
our
readers)
should
not
hold
a
respectable
place,
and
be
entitled
to
its
due
mead
of
praise
;
so,
by
way
of
introduction,
we
have
ventured
to
take
a
cursory
glance
at
the
customs
which
have
been
attached
to
drinking
from
the
earliest
periods
to
the
present
time.
This,
however,
we
set
forth
as
no
elaborate
history,
but
only
as
an
arrange-
ment
of
such
scraps
as
have
from
time
to
time
fallen
in
our
way,
and
have
helped
us
to
form
ideas
of
the
social
manners
of
bygone
times.
We
have
selected
a
sprig
of
Borage
for
our
frontispiece,
by
reason
of
the
usefulness
of
that
pleasant
herb
in
the
flavouring
of
cups.
Else-
where
than
in
England,
plants
for
flavouring
are
accounted
of
rare
virtue.
So
much
are
they
esteemed
in
the
East,
that
an
anti-Brahminical
writer,
showing
the
worthlessness
of
Hindu
superstitions,
says,
''
They
command
you
to
cut
down
a
living
and
sweet
basil-plant,
that
you
may
crown
a
lifeless
stone.''
Our
use
of
flavour-
ing-herbs
is
the
reverse
of
this
justly
condemned
one
;
for
we
crop
them
that
hearts
may
be
warmed
and
life
lengthened.
And
here
we
would
remark
that,
although
our
endeavours
are
directed
towards
the
resusci-
tation
of
better
times
than
those
we
live
in—