The roseate-tinted veil of dreams Falls from Life's countenance of pallid gloom, And the world showeth as it is--a tomb. _Schiller_. Who, then, would wish to live in such a world? No; we value the wine which calls forth the poetry of the inner man of him who is not totally abandoned of the Muses. But you, perhaps, reprobate the enjoyment of wine as too ignoble and material. But is it then the material portion of the wine which confers on us its witchcraft? No; it is the fine spirit, and that ethereal life which the German calls the flower of the wine. They ascend to the exhausted brain, and brace the relaxed chords. Know you then whether the strength which gives to life poetry and fresh grace, may not be one and the same? Whether the strength which is here bound to the material substratum, be not the same which there seizes thee mightily in the creations of Shakspeare? whether it be not the same which lives in the accord of the violoncello; whether it be not the same which dwells so entrancingly in the voice of the beloved? Yes, the spirits of the wine are related to others; and when they discover their brothers in the breasts of men, so combine they vigorously, and bursting their bonds, rush forth into active operation. All those noble feelings which had long, perhaps, by their possessor, who had experienced the bitter deceits of life, been beaten down and slept in obscurity--now, touched by the magic wand of wine, start again from their tomb. But when the spirits of the wine find there only strange and ignoble associates, then raise they with them a fierce conflict, in order from such guests of hell to free man; whose difference from all other beings, says Goethe, consists in this--that he be noble, helpful, and good! Therefore despise not wine, which is capable of accomplishing such rare ends, which can raise phantasies such as were dreamed in the Rathskeller at Bremen.[36] No; we acknowledge the wisdom of him who gave the wine to mankind, and of the good old patriarch who so thankfully received it. OLD NOAH. Noah from the ark had got, The Lord came to him on the spot; He smelt his offering in the wind, And said to thee I will be kind. And since a pious house thou art, Thyself shall name the gracious part. Then Noah answered, as he stood, "Dear Lord, this water smacks not good. Therefore I, poor old man, would fain Some different kind of drink obtain, Since that there hath been drowned therein All sinful beasts, and men of sin."