ELIXIR VITyE.

205

grisly spectre. Death, indeed, pays not muchrespect to the bon vivant; and, regardless of himas the professed toper may appear, or seldom ashe sings a memento mori over his bowl, or uttersone in the form of a toast, it must be acknow-ledged that he more often rehearses the finalscene of life than his fellow mortals, by get-ting dead-drunk, thus anticipating, as it were,that state of insensibility, that utter oblivion ofsublunary things, that characterizes Death.

As the bee extracts sweetness from the vilestplants, so does the moralist collect lessons ofwisdom and deep reflection from scenes thatseem capable of furnishing little instruction ofthis nature. We may be pardoned, therefore, ifwe prose a little on that truly poetical and classi-cal subject, a bacchanalian * group, when the

* For the benefit of those who delight to indulge in boldetymological speculations, and supply the pedigree of wordsfrom conjecture, we will here record an anecdote that mayelucidate the origin of this epithet:—" So, I hear, Mrs. Sim-kins, that your good man had quite a bacchanalian party theother evening," remarked an acquaintance to the spouse of aretired cheesemonger. " I would have you to know, sir,"