He that drinks wine for health, not for excess,
30Nor drowns his temper in a drunkenness,
Shall feel no more the grape's unruly fate,
Then if he took some chilling opiate.
To One demanding, &c.] If not exactly Poetry, this is at least sense, as was once remarked (or in words to that effect), with 'Latin' for 'Poetry', by the late Professor Nettleship, with regard to a composition not in verse.
Malone MS. 22, fol. 24, has an earlier draft of this poem, commencing:
We do not give the wine a sparkling name,
As if we meant those sparks implied a flame;
The flame lies in our blood: and 'tis desire
Fed by loose appetite sets us on fire,