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Show 9 Nut ao Aid to Literature. Exchange, Thackeray, defending wine, remarks that it makes a man bettor, braver, w ittier, more geuerous, "up to a certain point; I do not say a certain pint." As to its making us" wittier, that is just what we are disputing. Thackeray was wittier when he was writing ''Vanity ''Van-ity Fair" than when ho was "tasting Lord Steyne's white hermitage which so tired Pitt Crawley. He may have felt wittier at a dinner, but that was where the Illusion came in. We may be certain that few men if any men at allcan write their best, or nearly their t0, with wine busy in their brains. "Vvho should try tliis, bums the can-It can-It both ends, but without produc-brilliant produc-brilliant illumination. Noss, this J" ery strong proof that thewlfcjrots r-Tiwhen the wine comes in, P-Thaps 'some scientific man of letters will try writiDg an article while ho drinks a bottle of champagne, and, after reading it uext morning, will tell us what he thinks of it. He will probably have to confess that the wit has been driven by the wine, t hough it may have seemed very splendid while he was writing. Indeed, any natural elation of spirits, I think, makes us overestimate the work composed while it lasted; and the best thinks are done is a very sober and self-distrustful mood. In Mr.JKipling's "The Light That Failed," the hero, growing blind, can see and paint under the influence of whisky. I doubt, as a layman, if this be physiologically co r-rect. r-rect. It certainly docs not hold" good in the art of writting, where wine and wit seem hostile powers incapable of living at peace on the same territory. |