[971] It is observed in Waller's Life, in the Biographia Britannica, that he drank only water; and that while he sat in a company who were drinking wine, 'he had the dexterity to accommodate his discourse to the pitch of theirs as it sunk.' If excess in drinking be meant, the remark is acutely just. But surely, a moderate use of wine gives a gaiety of spirits which water-drinkers know not. BOSWELL. 'Waller passed his time in the company that was highest, both in rank and wit, from which even his obstinate sobriety did not exclude him. Though he drank water, he was enabled by his fertility of mind to heighten the mirth of Bacchanalian assemblies; and Mr. Saville said that "no man in England should keep him company without drinking but Ned Waller."' Johnson's Works, vii. 197.
[972] See ante, iii. 41, and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 17.
[973] Pope. Satires, Prologue, 1. 283.
[974] As he himself had said in his letter of thanks for his diploma of Doctor of Laws, 'Nemo sibi placens non lactatur' (ante, ii. 333).
[975]
'Who mean to live within our proper sphere,
Dear to ourselves, and to our country dear.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Epistles, i. 3. 29.
[976] Johnson recommended this before. Ante, p. 169. Boswell tried abstinence once before. Ante, ii. 436, note 1, and iii. 170, note 1.
[977] Johnson wrote to Boswell in 1775:—'Reynolds has taken too much to strong liquor, and seems to delight in his new character.' Ante, ii. 292.
[978] See ante, p. 170, note 2.