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DEATH S DOINGS.

tertain the company with his erudition in oeno-logy; and descant most learnedly on the pedi-grees of wines, showing himself deeply learnedin the lore of a Henderson, and quite au fait inthe science of the drawing-room,—that is, theroom where they draw corks ; which, by the by,in the opinion of a great many connoisseurs, is thefinest style of drawing ever invented. But whe-ther the liquor he proffers be claret or champagne,—" that might create a soul beneath the ribs ofdeath,"—or whether it be eau-de-vie itself, itbecomes a fatal poison, if Death takes uponhimself to act the part of cup-bearer. If, how-ever, wine do sometimes prove a poison, it mustbe acknowledged to be infinitely the most agree-able of any mentioned or not mentioned in anytreatise on toxicology, and by far the most pa-lateable and generous way of committing suicideyet discovered.

Many have declaimed vehemently, if not elo-quently, against the " sweet poison of misusedwine," attributing to it the most pernicious effectson the human frame ; forgetting that the mischief