Vivant omnes virgines, Faciles, formosæ; Vivant et mulieres, Vivant et mulieres Bonæ, laboriosæ. Vivat et respublica, Et qui illam regit; Vivat nostra civitas, Mecenatum caritas, Quæ nos hic protegit. Pereat tristitia, Pereant osores; Pereat diabolus, Quivis anti-burschius Atque irrisores. CHAPTER XV. DRINKING CUSTOMS OF STUDENT LIFE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. Seize the glittering wine-cup there! See ye not, no purply winking, Blood of nature, rich and rare? Let us grasp it, boldly drinking, That a fire-strength may glow Through each vein--a new creation! Sacred is of wine the flow-- Is of youth the glad elation! _Uhland_. Have the gods drunk nectar!--the gods, exempt from all the cares of mortal existence, and shall then poor mankind be envied the enjoyment of their earthly nectar? No; not without cause was it celebrated by all the ancient poets. Even the great Reformer himself joined in its praise; and Horace says-- Narratur et prisci Catonis, Sæpe mero caluisse virtus. Then come the moralists truly and say, "You should not purposely throw yourselves into an artificial gladness; the true gladness comes from within." Very true; and the genuine healing of sickness comes from within, and you shall and cannot subdue it by art? It is therefore that the Turks believe that you ought not to assist nature in her marvellous operations by a healing means. If that be your faith, do as the Turks do, and drink no wine. But have we not thus a thousand things which are to a certain degree necessary to our well-being, necessary to preserve the proper tone of mind and body? And would you blindly condemn all these? Wherefore then do you imagine that wine was made? Would you banish all poetry out of life, and say Who then would cheat himself with phantom shapes, That with a borrowed charm do clothe existence, And with a false possession follow Hope? _Schiller_. Will you do that? Then, indeed, must you banish wine; for it is, so to say, an incarnate poetry. For if it were not that, it were nothing to us; and to whomsoever it is not that, him counsel we to refrain, and to hand it over to other and happier mortals. But think well on it ere you banish all poetry out of the world.