that vineyard, he sent for the slave, and asked him what he thought of his
prophecy now; to which the other replied, "Many things fall out between
the cup and the lip," and he had scarcely delivered this singular response,
before news was brought that a monstrous boar was laying waste the
favourite vineyard. The king, in a rage, put down the cup which he held in
his hand, and hurried out with his people to attack the boar; but being
too eager, the boar rushed upon him and killed him, without having tasted
of the wine. Such is the story related by some of the Greek writers, and
though evidently apocryphal, it certainly is productive of a good
practical moral.

"_In the merry pin_." This is said of those who have drunk freely and are
cheerful in their cups. Among the ancient northern nations, it was
customary to drink out of large horns, in which were placed small pins,
like a scale of distances, and he who quaffed most was considered as a
toper of the first magnitude, and respected accordingly. The merry pin was
that which stood pretty far from the mouth of the horn, and he who, at a
draught, reduced the liquor to that point, was a man of no ordinary
prowess in bacchanalian contest.

"_Under the Rose be it spoken_." The rose being dedicated by Cupid to
Harpocrates, the god of Silence, to engage him to conceal the amours of
Venus, was an emblem of Silence; whence to present it or hold it up to any
person in discourse, served instead of an admonition, that it was time for
him to hold his peace; and in entertaining rooms it was customary to place
a rose above the table, to signify that what was there spoken should be
kept private. This practice is described by the following epigram:--

Est rosa flos, Veneris cujus quo facta laterunt,
Harpocrati matri dona dicavit Amor,