Some of the most vigorous thinkers and laborious workers, however, find that wine aids digestion and conduces to their power of work. To Mr. Gladstone it is "especially necessary at the time of greatest intellectual exertion." As a rule, it is taken at the end of the day, when work is over; but when he resumes literary composition the quality of a writer's work seems deteriorated. One of the most esteemed novelists of the present day informs Dr. Brunton that, although he can take a great deal of wine without its having any apparent effect on him, yet a single glass of sherry is enough to take the fine edge off his intellect. He is able to write easily and fluently in the evening, after taking dinner and wine, but what he then writes will not bear his own criticism next morning, although curiously enough it may seem to him excellent at the time of writing. The perception of the fingers, as well as the perception of the mind, seems blunted by the use of alcohol. Dr. Alfred Carpenter relates that a celebrated violin player, as he was about to go on the platform, was asked if he would take a glass of wine before he appeared, "Oh, no, thank you," he replied, "I shall have it when I come off." This answer excited Mr. Carpenter's curiosity, and he inquired of the violinist why he would have it when he came off in preference to having it before his work commenced, and the reply was, "If I take stimulants before I go to work, the _perception of the fingers is blunted,_ and I don't feel that nicety and delicacy of touch necessary to bring out the fine tones requisite in this piece of music, and therefore I avoid them." "But to touch these things is dangerous, "says Mr. Hubert Bancroft, though less dangerous to touch them _after_ work than _before_ work. The most careful man is sometimes thrown off his guard, and drinks more than his usual allowance. It is, Mr. Watts believes, an admitted fact that even people who are considered strictly temperate habitually take more than is good for them. What quantity _is_ good for every man, no one can say with certainty. So far as wine is taken to aid digestion, Blackie, who considers that wine "may even be necessary to stimulate digestion," holds that "healthy _young_ men can never require such a stimulus."