"For who can be properly nourished, if indeed he be of human stock, without wine? St. Paul said to someone who had consulted him (without remembering that, unlike St. Luke, he was no physician), ‘Take a little wine for your stomach’s sake.’ But I say, take plenty of it for the sake of your soul and all that appertains to the soul: scholarship; verse; social memory and the continuity of all culture. There may be excess in wine; as there certainly is in spirits and champagne, but in wine one rarely comes across it; for it seems to me that true wine rings a bell and tells you when you have had enough. But there is certainly such a thing as a deficiency of wine; and such a deficiency is one of the most awful ravenous beasts that can fasten upon a living soul…"
Hilaire Belloc
3 comments:
Salud!
Much agreed. However, I suspect that if you begin to hear bells (or anything else for that matter) it's more likely a sign that you've had already too much.
"Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There's always laughter and sweet, red wine.
At least I've always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!"
--Hilaire Belloc
I believe we have proven this point just a few times. Merry sixth day of Christmas!
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