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When Bell was in that country, grapes were so abundant, that they were left hanging in clusters on the vines, twisted round the trees in the woods, as a prey to the fowls of the air. Though the vine flourishes luxuriantly, in the southern provinces, yet, in the north-western, they are obliged to bury the shoots, to protect them from the winter frosts.

In the distillation of brandy and other liquors, the apparatus employed by the Persians is simple, and, for the most part, consists of earthen vessels, the still being merely a jar, sufficiently strong to bear the action of the fire. The condensation of the vapour is effected by the old and clumsy method of pouring cold water on the cucurbit, or head, which presents a broad surface to the water, that surrounds it in the tub, and when the still is to be charged, the lid is removed, and the liquid, to be distilled, is poured in by an attendant. The time of charging is determined by the weakness of the spirit from the condenser, and the whole operation is completed with little fatigue, expense, or trouble.

In the preceding survey of the principal nations, where the influence of Mahometans has rendered the use of intoxicating liquors objectionable and penal, we have seen that this prohibition has tended to render men artful and hypocritical, and although abstinence from inebriation is at all times commendable, yet, when carried to a complete deprivation, it has a contrary effect. The Romans prudently forbade their wives to drink wine, lest they should fall into criminal intercourse through intemperance.* The Egyptians, from temperate motives, would not allow their priests to indulge in wine, but this abstinence was not always observed. Their dislike to this liquor is said by some to have arisen from the circumstance of Noah's inebriety, the recollection of which still excites great abhorrence among them, and this is supposed to have been the real origin of the antipathy to wine, shewn by many eastern nations. The Jewish Levites were forbidden to drink wine, only before their entrance into the sanctuary; but there was no perpetual prohibition, as the great object was to prevent the abuse, not the use of a wholesome and exhilarating beverage. The Holy Scriptures have no absolute command against the use of wine, nor any other liquor, unless it should amount to intemperance, and against this the sacred volume is explicit and determined. That an antipathy to wine, founded either on policy, delusion, or superstition, has influenced certain portions of mankind, from the earliest ages, is evident, and traces of it are found in the writings of Moses, even so early as the time of Joseph. But the prohibition of

* Valerius Maximus, b. ii. ch. 1.

this drink does not appear to have originated through anxiety for the preservation of health, or purity of morals, but rather from an economical prudence, or to promote the interests, and secure the policy of nations, or individuals. Abstinence from wine was manifestly beneficial to the Egyptians, because their country was not a land of grapes; hence its prohibition was enforced, under the pretext of morality and philosophy: it was even forbidden to be used in divine worship, though there was no objection to eating the grapes. Moses, to obstruct the return of the Israelites to Egypt, enjoined theuse of wine, and made it an accompaniment of the Jewish offerings, that, as a judicious writer expresses it, no person might consider it as impure, or abhor it from a motive of religion; nay, he every where speaks advantageously of wine, the principal production of the Land of Promise: thus, although, in the earliest ages of its existence, wine met with wise opponents, it found, nevertheless, still wiser advocates. The philosophers and moralists of ancient times condemned every description of excess: Galen, although he called wine the nurse of old age, was against its abuse. Mnestheus would indulge men in harmless potations. Seneca thought the senses ought not to be overcome, but the cares of life might be lightened, by an exhilaration of the spirits. Plato considered wine as the renovator of old age, and the enlivener of society, when kept within the limits of discretion. Pythagoras, with all his stoicism, is said not to have been insensible to a well regulated indulgence in the use of wine. Asclepiades, a physician, who practised at Rome, ninety-six years before the Christian era, successfully administered wine, with every remedy, to all his patients, and wrote a treatise on its virtues, in which he observed that the gods had not bestowed a more valuable gift on man. Diogenes, though so rigid a philosopher in self-denial, drank wine with more than common gratification and though he threw away his water bowl as superfluous, when he beheld a man drinking water out of his hands at a brook, yet, it is affirmed, that he never refused the wine goblet, when presented to him at another's expense. Hippocrates, the father of physic, recommends a cheerful glass, and even Rhases, a Mahommetan, says no liquor is equal to good wine. Amongst its many modern advocates in the medical profession, Doctor Whitaker, physician to Charles the Second, undertook to prove, by the use of wine, the possibility of prolonging life, from infancy, to old age, without sickness or infirmity.

The opinion of the prophet is also contradicted by the conduct of our Saviour, on the occasion of the marriage at Cana, when he turned the water into wine, not only with a view of shewing his miraculous powers, but of making the parties more cheerful. From the earliest

periods, wine seems to have formed a portion of the entertainment, not only at marriage ceremonies, but at the most solemn sacrifices where libations were poured out; and it requires no force of argument to shew that the moderate use of wine must have been sanctioned by the Almighty himself, when our blessed Lord had recourse to a miracle, to supply the wants of the guests where he was present. St. Paul advised Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach's sake,and the use of it, in the institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, isa further unquestionable proof of its value and excellence; and that it is the abuse of it only that is objectionable. To use the language of Blair, it is that thoughtless and intemperate enjoyment of it, which wholly absorbs the time and attention of men; which obliterates every serious thought of the proper business of life; and effaces the sense of religion and of God, that is to be dreaded and avoided.

On what rational grounds, Mahomet forbade the entire use of wine, has never yet been determined, but that the prohibition has not been accounted just, is proved both from its direct and indirect violation, as well as from its having engendered more vicious habits, than it has prevented evil consequences-facts that have been but too well attested, and of which the following is a melancholy illustration. AurengZèbe in the frenzy of his zeal to support this Mahometan dogma, entered the tent of his brother when he knew he was in a state of intoxication, and, surrounded by soldiers, directed his head to be taken off, which cruel act he justified by saying, that he deserved death for disobeying the laws of his religion, and rendering himself unfit for the duties of life. This is but one of a thousand heinous acts that might be produced to strengthen the justice of these observations; but enough has been said to prove that this extraordinary command of the Prophet was issued rather from a view to distinguish his religion, and render his doctrine more imposing, than from a principle of moral rectitude, or a wish to promote the happiness of mankind.

The general use of opium and other exhilarating substances, with all their concomitant evils, may, therefore, date its origin from this mandate of the Prophet, while the restriction shews to what subterfuges men have recourse, when injudiciously forbidden to exercise their discretion and common sense, in either the gratification of the passions, the protection of the moral virtues, or the freedom of opinion, whether in religion, politics, or philosophy. The properties and consequences of these natural inebriants I shall now proceed to describe.

The poppy,papaver somniferum in botany, is a plant remarkable for its peculiar properties. It was so called, because it was commonly mixed

with the pap, (papa,) given to children in order to ease pain, and induce sleep. The term papa is also applied by the Peruvians to their chief article of subsistence, the potato, which they mix with other ingredients in a very savoury and substantial manner. There are various descriptions of the poppy, one of them, papaver album, or white garden poppy, is indigenous to most countries, and is so called, not from the colour of its flowers, which is diversified, but from the whiteness of its seed. Its juice is called by the Persians afioun, and by the Arabians aphium, from which, says a learned writer, is derived our word opium. Others think it comes from the Greek opos, succus in Latin, implying any kind of vegetable juice; but it has been subsequently confined to the juice of the poppy alone. At what time opium first came into use is uncertain; but Homer is reputed to have known of its virtues, and the Nepenthe mentioned in the Odyssey, is by some supposed to have been a preparation of this drug, which was originally brought from Thebes, and on that account called the Thebaic tincture, and known by that name at the present day. The composition of the Nepenthe is said to have been imparted to Helen by Polydamna, wife of Thonis, king of Egypt. No allusion is made to this drug in Scripture, and it may consequently be inferred that it was unknown to the Jews. Herodotus asserts the Massageta and all the Scythians had among them certain herbs, that they threw into the fire, the ascending fumes of which they anxiously inhaled. With these they became as much intoxicated as if they had taken large portions of wine, and exhibited in their songs and dances all the ridiculous frolics and gesticulations which are the result of inebriety.† Opium is not mentioned by Hippocrates, though it is affirmed that it was known to Diagoras, who was nearly his contemporary. Some writers consider the use of opium as very ancient, and it is asserted that the Pagan priests had recourse to a narcotic, previously to the delivery of their oracles, and under the influence of which they acted on such occasions.

For the sake of this drug, the poppy is cultivated to a great extent in several parts of the East. In some of the Turkish provinces of Asia, particularly Natolia, it is reared to perfection, and opium of the best description is obtained. The poppy of Persia, however, is esteemed the finest in the world, not only in respect to its beauty, but because its juice is much stronger than the juice of the same plant elsewhere, yielding a greater quantity of opium, and therefore in the highest estimation. It grows in some places to the height of four feet and upwards, with a beautiful corolla of white leaves at the vertex. In June, when

Odyssey, L. IV. v. 228.

Herodotus, b. i. sec. 36.

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it is ripe, the juice is extracted by incisions in the head, and gathered every morning before sunrise. The effect of collecting the opium, in this manner, is said to have such an influence on those employed for that purpose, as to make them appear as if buried and again taken up, and their limbs tremble as if they were affected with palsy. Amongst the Persian bakers, it is a practice to strew poppy seed on the bread, with a view to enhance its sale, and the common people eat the seed at any time with pleasure, a practice common in our own country.

This plant is indigenous to most countries, and the method employed to procure the drug is almost everywhere the same. In India, opium is the staple commodity of many of the provinces; the method of cultivating the plant, which requires a dry soil prepared for the purpose, and obtaining the opium, is nearly the same throughout Hindostan, and is commonly as follows:-The seed is generally sown in October and November, when the periodical rains cease. The plants are kept about eight inches distant, and well watered by means of furrows, till they rise nearly six inches above the surface. A fortnight or three weeks after sowing, some of the seeds are dug up, in order to see whether they have germinated, and if so, the process is commenced. If the plants happen to be too near each other, some of them are pulled and used as potherbs; but they cannot serve for that purpose when they become more advanced; being then of a strongly intoxicating At these early stages, a mixture of dung, nitrous earth, and ashes, is strewed round the plants, and a little before the flowers appear, they are again repeatedly watered, till the capsules are half grown or the petals of the flowers fall off; the collection of the opium then commences, because when fully ripe little juice is obtained. The white kind yields a larger quantity than the red, but the quality of both is the same, yet the white is accounted preferable. When the capsules assume a whitish appearance, incisions are made in them with an instrument having three teeth at a very small distance from each other, merely to perforate the skin without penetrating the cavity.

nature.

These wounds are made from the top to the bottom of the capsule so as not to wound the inner membrane, for, should that be the case, the root would instantly die. This operation is always performed at sun-set, and repeated for three or four successive days, and the juice, which is of a milky appearance flowing therefrom, is collected the following morning, and permitted to purify itself by fermentation. In this manner the whole crop of a field is wounded, and the opium collected from it in about fifteen days, an incredible number of men, women, and children, being employed on the occasion. The juice, having exuded and thickened by exposure to the air, is scraped off

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