We now pass on to times which seem, in their customs, to approach more nearly to the present, yet far back enough to be called old times; and we think it may be pardoned if we indulge in some reminiscences of them, tacking on to our short-lived memories the greater recollection of history, and thus reversing the wheels of time, which are hurrying us forward faster than we care to go. For we hold it to be an excusable matter, this halting awhile and looking back to times of simpler manners than those we are living in, of heartier friendships, of more genial trustings; and that these good qualities were preeminently those current during the 17th and 18th centuries we have abundant proof. Has not one of the most noble sentiments in the English language come down to us in a cup--the cup of kindness, which we are bidden to take for "Auld Lang Syne"? And truly there come to us from this age passed by, but leaving behind an ever-living freshness which can be made a heritage of cheerfulness to the end of time, such testimonies of good done by associable as well as social intercourse, that, were we cynics of the most churlish kind, instead of people inclined to be kind and neighbourly, we could not refuse acknowledgment of the part played in such deeds by the cup of kindness. Be it remembered, however, such bright oases in social history do not shine from gluttonous tables, and are not the property of hard-drinking circles, with their attendant vices. We seek for them in vain at the so-called social boards of the last century, where men won their spurs by excessive wine-drinking, and "three-bottle men" were the only _gentlemen_; neither do we meet them amid the carousals of Whitehall and Alsatia, or, nearer to our own day, among the vicious _coteries_ of the Regency. The scenes we like to recall and dwell upon are those of merry-makings and jollity--or of friendly meetings, as when gentle Master Izaac, returning from his fishing, brings with him two-legged fish to taste his brewage (and a very pleasant and commendable cup the great master of the gentle art will drink with them), or when pious Master Herbert chances to meet with a man he liketh, who hath the manner of loving all things for the good that is in them, and who, like his greater companion, (for no one in that quality of mind was greater than Herbert,) had a respect for what, in others, were occasions of stumbling, could use good gifts without abusing them, and think the loving-cup of spiced wine an excellent good cordial for the heart, or when Dr. Donne (scarce a man in England wiser than he), laying aside for the time his abstruse learning, mixed a mighty cup of gillyflower sack, and talked over it with Sir Kenelm Digby (hardly a lesser man than himself), of the good gifts lavishly offered, but by some rudely abused, and by others unthankfully taken, discussed the merits of plants and fruits, or the virtues, harder to be discovered, of stones and metals, while they marvelled at that scheme which adapted each body, animate or inanimate, to the station ordained to it, and at the infinite goodness of Him who made man head of all, and gave him power and discernment that he might show, by the moderate use of things healthy and nourishing, the wisdom of Him who ordained them to cheer and to cherish. A great regard for the wholesome had Sir Kenelm Digby, whose carefulness in the concoction of his favourite cup was such that he could not brew it aright if he had not Hyde-Park water--a rule of much value in Sir Kenelm's day, no doubt; but modern "improvements," unfortunately, interfere with the present use of it. Other apostles of the truest temperance (moderation) there were, and we cherish them as men who have deserved well of their country. Dr. Parr, for example, who could drink his cider-cup on the village green on a Sunday evening, while his farming parishioners played at bowls,--or again, still more legibly written in social history, and to some extent leaving an impress upon our national life, the club-gatherings of the last century, where men of far-seeing and prudent philosophy (Addison, Steele, Goldsmith, Johnson, and others), whose names are interwoven with the history of their time, meeting together, talked of human joys and human sorrows over claret-cups--men witty themselves, and the cause of wit in other men, like sweet Sir John, whose devotion to "sherris sack" cost him his character, and will therefore deny him admission to our gallery of men who have drank wisely and warily, and therefore well.