When they had all given in their opinions upon this
point, Eumetis and Melissa withdrew. Then Periander
called for a large bowl full of wine, and drank to Chilo;
and Chilo likewise drank to Bias. Ardalus then standing
up called to Esop, and said: Will you not hand the cup to
[p. 23]
your friends at this end of the table, when you behold
those persons there swilling up all that good liquor, and
imparting none to us here, as if the cup were that of
Bathycles. But this cup, quoth Esop, is no public cup,
it hath stood so long by Solon's trenchard. Then Pittacus
called to Mnesiphilus: Why, saith he, does not Solon
drink, but act in contradiction to his own verses?—
I love that ruby God, whose blessings flow
In tides, to recreate my thirsty maw;
Venus I court, the Muses I adore,
Who give us wine and pleasures evermore.
Anacharsis subjoined: He fears your severe law, my friend
Pittacus, wherein you decreed the drunkard a double punishment. You seem, said Pittacus, a little to fear the penalty, who have adventured heretofore, and now again before
my face, to break that law and to demand a crown for the
reward of your debauch. Why not, quoth Anacharsis,
when there is a reward promised to the hardest drinker?
Why should I not demand my reward, having drunk down
all my fellows?—or inform me of any other end men drive
at in drinking much wine, but to be drunk. Pittacus laughed
at this reply, and Esop told them this fable: The wolf
seeing a parcel of shepherds in their booth feeding upon
a lamb, approaching near them,—What a bustle and noise
and uproar would you have made, saith he, if I had but
done what you do! Chilo said: Esop hath very justly
revenged himself upon us, who awhile ago stopped his
mouth; now he observes how we prevented Mnesiphilus's
discourse, when the question was put why Solon did not
drink up his wine.
Mnesiphilus then spake to this effect: I know this to be
the opinion of Solon, that in every art and faculty, divine
and human, the work which is done is more desired than
the instrument wherewith it is done, and the end than the
means conducing to that end; as, for instance, a weaver
[p. 24]
thinks a cloak or coat more properly his work than the
ordering of his shuttles or the divers motions of his beams.
A smith minds the soldering of his irons and the sharpening of the axe more than those little things preparatory to
these main matters, as the kindling of the coals and getting
ready the stone-dust. Yet farther, a carpenter would justly
blame us, if we should affirm it is not his work to build
houses or ships but to bore holes or to make mortar; and
the Muses would be implacably incensed with him that
should say their business is only to make harps, pipes, and
such musical instruments, not the institution and correction
of manners and the government of those men's passions
who are lovers of singing and masters of music. And
agreeably copulation is not the work of Venus, nor is
drunkenness that of Bacchus; but love and friendship,
affection and familiarity, which are begot and improved by
the means of these. Solon terms these works divine, and
he professes he loves and now prosecutes them in his declining years as vigorously as ever in his youthful days.
That mutual love between man and wife is the work of
Venus, the greatness of the pleasure affecting their bodies
mixes and melts their very souls; divers others, having
little or no acquaintance before, have yet contracted a firm
and lasting friendship over a glass of wine, which like fire
softened and melted their tempers, and disposed them for a
happy union. But in such a company, and of such men
as Periander hath invited, there is no need of can and
chalice, but the Muses themselves throwing a subject of
discourse among you, as it were a sober cup, wherein is
contained much of delight and drollery and seriousness too,
do hereby provoke, nourish, and increase friendship among
you, suffering the can to rest quietly upon the bowl, contrary to the rule which Hesiod
1 gives for those who have
more skill for carousing than for discoursing.
[p. 25]
Though all the rest with stated rules we bound,
Unmix'd, unmeasured, are thy goblets crown'd:
2
for it was the old Greek way, as Homer here tells us, to
drink one to another in course and order. So Ajax gave a
share of his meat to his next neighbor.
When Mnesiphilus had discoursed after this manner, in
comes Chersias the poet, whom Periander had lately pardoned and received into favor upon Chilo's mediation.
Saith Chersias: Does not Jupiter distribute to the Gods
their proportion and dividend sparingly and severally, as
Agamemnon did to his commanders when his guests drank
to one another? If, O Chersias, quoth Cleodemus, as you
narrate, certain doves bring him his ambrosia every meal,
flying with a world of hardship through the rocks called
Planctae (or
wandering), can you blame him for his sparingness and frugality and dealing out to his guests by
measure?
