 as people did not drink, but sip or sipple that liquor; - that the genuine
meaning of drinking is to quench one's thirst, or commit a debauch by swallowing
wine; - that the Latin word, which conveyed the same idea, was bibere or potare,
and that of the Greeks pinein or poteein, though he was apt to believe they were
differently used on different occasions: For example; to drink a vast quantity,
or, as the vulgar express it, to drink an ocean of liquor, was in Latin potare,
and in Greek poteein; and on the other hand, to use it moderately, was bibere
and pinein; - that this was only a conjecture of his own, which, however, seemed
to be supported by the word bibulous, which is particularly applied to the pores
of the skin, that can only drink a very small quantity of the circumambient
moisture, by reason of the smallness of their diameters; -- whereas, from the
verb poteein, is derived the substantive potamos, which signifies a river, or
vast quantity of liquor. - I could not help smiling at this learned and
important investigation; and to recommend myself the more to my new
acquaintance, whose disposition I was by this time well informed of, I observed,
that what he alledged, did not, to the best of my remembrance, appear in the
writings of the ancients; for, Horace uses the words poto and bibo indifferently
for the same purpose, as in the twentieth Ode of his first Book.
 
Vile potabis modicis sabinum cantharis, --
-- Et prælo domitam caleno tu bibes uvam.
 
That I had never heard of the verb poteein, but that potamos, potema, and potos,
were derived from pino, poso, pepoka: in consequence of which, the Greek poets
never use any other word for festal drinking. - Homer describes Nestor at his
cups in these words:
 
Nestora d' ouk elathen jache pinonta perempes.
 
And Anacreon mentions it on the same occasion almost in every page,
 
Pionti d' oinon hedun
Otan pino ton oinon.
Opliz' ego de pino.
 
And in a thousand other places. - The doctor, who, doubtless, intended by his
criticism, to give me an high idea of his erudition, was infinitely surprized to
find himself schooled by one in my appearance; and after a considerable pause,
cried, »Upon my word! you are in the right, Sir. - I find I have not considered
this affair with my usual accuracy.« - Then accosting me, in Latin, which he
spoke very well,
