38 / 90
26
CUPS
AND
THEIR
CUSTOMS.
not
refuse
acknowledgment
of
the
part
played
in
such
deeds
by
the
cup
of
kindness.
Be
it
remembered,
however^
such
bright
oases
in
social
history
do
not
shine
from
gluttonous
tables
—
are
not
the
property
of
hard-drinking
circles,
with
their
attendant
vices.
We
seek
for
them
in
vain
at
the
so-called
social
boards
of
the
last
century,
where
men
won
their
spurs
by
exces-
sive
wine-drinking,
and
"
three-bottle
men
^^
were
the
only
gentlemen]
neither
do
we
meet
them
amid
the
carousals
of
Whitehall
and
Alsatia,
or,
nearer
to
our
own
day,
among
the
vicious
coteries
of
the
Regency.
The
scenes
we
like
to
recall
and
dwell
upon
are
those
of
merry-makings
and
jollity;
or
of
friendly
meetings,
as
when
gentle
Master
Isaac,
returning
from
his
fish-
ing,
brings
with
him
two-legged
fish
to
taste
his
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
loving
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
loving-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
over
it
with
Sir
Kenelm
Digby
(hardly
a
lesser
man
than
himself),
of
the
good
gifts
lavishly
ofi'ered,
but
by
some
rudely