To please others by drinking wine, is
something only, if there be nothing against it. I should, however, be
sorry to offend worthy men:--
"Curst be the verse, how well so e'er it flow,
That tends to make one worthy man my foe."'
BOSWELL. 'Curst be the SPRING, the WATER.' JOHNSON. 'But let us consider
what a sad thing it would be, if we were obliged to drink or do any
thing else that may happen to be agreeable to the company where we are.'
LANGTON. 'By the same rule you must join with a gang of cut-purses.'
JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir: but yet we must do justice to wine; we must allow it
the power it possesses. To make a man pleased with himself, let me tell
you, is doing a very great thing;
"Si patriae volumus, si Nobis vivere cari."'
I was at this time myself a water-drinker, upon trial, by Johnson's
recommendation. JOHNSON. 'Boswell is a bolder combatant than Sir Joshua:
he argues for wine without the help of wine; but Sir Joshua with it.'
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
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