Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean.
And now, alas! the drench has credit got,
And he's no gentleman that drinks it not;
That such a dwarf should rise to such a stature!
But custom is but a remove from nature.
A little dish and a large coffee-house,
What is it but a mountain and a mouse?"
Notwithstanding this opposition, coffee soon became a favourite drink, and the shops, where it was sold, places of general resort.
There appears to have been a great anxiety that the Coffee-house, while open to all ranks, should be conducted under such restraints as might prevent the better class of customers from being annoyed. Accordingly, the following regulations, printed on large sheets of paper, were hung up in conspicuous positions on the walls:—
"Enter, Sirs, freely, but first, if you please,