| The Bagatelles From
Passy Benjamin Franklin |
|
| In vino veritas,
says the wise man,Truth is in wine. He made wine to gladden the heart of man; do not, therefore when at table you see your neighbor pour wine into his glass, be eager to mingle water with it. Why would you drown truth?... |
![]() Endpaper |
|
P.S. To confirm
still more your piety and gratitude to Divine Providence, reflect upon
the situation which it has given to the elbow. Man, who was destined to
drink wine, must be able to raise the glass to his mouth. If the elbow
had been placed nearer the hand (as in Figure 3), the part in advance
would have been too short to bring the glass up to the mouth; and if it
had been placed nearer the shoulder (as in Figure 4), that part would
have been so long that it would have carried the wine far beyond the mouth.
But by the actual situation (represented in Figure 5), we are enabled
to drink at our ease, the glass going exactly to the mouth. Let us, then,
with glass in hand, adore this benevolent wisdom;let us adore and
drink! |
|