Not that I would so insinuate
respecting you, Captain Waverley, who, like a prudent youth, did rather
abstain from potation; nor can it be truly said of myself, who, having
assisted at the tables of many great generals and marechals at their
solemn carousals, have the art to carry my wine discreetly, and did not,
during the whole evening, as ye must have doubtless observed, exceed the
bounds of a modest hilarity.'
There was no refusing assent to a proposition so decidedly laid down by
him who undoubtedly was the best judge; although, had Edward formed his
opinion from his own recollections, he would have pronounced that the
Baron was not only EBRIOLUS, but verging to become EBRIUS; or, in plain
English, was incomparably the most drunk of the party, except perhaps
his antagonist the Laird of Balmawhapple. However, having received the
expected, or rather the required, compliment on his sobriety, the Baron
proceeded,--'No, sir, though I am myself of a strong temperament, I
abhor ebriety, and detest those who swallow wine GULAE CAUSA, for the
oblectation of the gullet; albeit I might deprecate the law of Pittacus
of Mitylene, who punished doubly a crime committed under the influence
of LIBER PATER; nor would I utterly accede to the objurgation of the
younger Plinius, in the fourteenth book of his HISTORIA NATURALIS.
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