nothing beyond the bare use of wine, without pursuing any
investigation with respect to those who are accustomed to
behave foolishly in their cups, and in fact omitting every
thing which has reference to conduct under the influence of
wine; so that it is very plainly confessed in their writings
that drunkenness is the same as drinking wine freely. And
to drink a superabundant quantity of wine on proper occa-
sions is not unsuitable to a wise man; therefore we shall
not be wrong if we say that a wise man may get drunk.

But since no one is ever inscribed on the rolls as a con-
queror if he has contended by himself alone, for if he does this
he appears only to be fighting with a shadow, and very
naturally too; it follows that we must also produce the
arguments of those who contend for the opposite side of the
question, that by this means a most just judgment may be
formed, and that the other side of the question may not be
decided against through default. And the first and the most
powerful argument is this: if no one in his senses would
entrust a secret which he wished to be kept to a drunken
man, then a good and wise man will not get drunk. But
before we collect all the other arguments in their order, it may
be better to reply to each objection separately, in order that
we may not appear to be too prolix, and consequently to be
troublesome.

Some one then will say in opposition that, according to
the argument that has been advanced, the wise man must
never have a bilious attack, and never go to sleep, and above
all must never die. But he to whom some of these things
happens is either art inanimate being or a divine one; but
beyond all question he is not a man at all. Imitating this
perversion of the arguments, one may apply it equally to a
bilious man, or to a sleeping man, or to a dying man; for
no one in his senses would tell a secret to a man in any of
these conditions, but it would be reasonable for him to tell
it to a wise man, for the wise man is never bilious, never
goes to sleep, and never dies.

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