Epithalamion protreptikon

Thus, a cheerful conversation will soon flow: it will proceed more eloquently:
And pain will fall of its own accord once the fuel is extinguished:
Care will flee far away: which gnaws at pale hearts:
And does not allow men to be empty of fear.
Just as the Roman, when he had drunk more generously at the wet joys
Of the table, then sad CATO ceased to be.
Histories reveal this: and devouring sorrow is driven from the breast
By the watered wine, and is diluted by the wine.
YET BE mindful of the Lord, who created all things:
From whose bosom every good flows.
Render venerable praises to Him with pious tongues:
Let everyone bring thanks to Him with a whole heart.
And let beautiful Sobriety check the love of Wine:
A sober life especially becomes learned men.
» Let the fear of the Lord itself moderate the immoderate
» Love of Wine: every drunk man is BEASTLY.
» And just as strengths help: just as moderate things are profitable:
» So too much is accustomed to harm everyone.
Just as a wagon is broken when it labors with too great a load:
Just as a horse is crushed when burdened with too great a weight.
So Nature perishes, which is burdened with too great a weight:
And the boat, pressed down, totters in the blue waters.
So as often as the moon-shaped bow is stretched too much,
It is broken: and there is no life for long in the immoderate.
» A golden thing, the middle: the blessed have cultivated the middle:
» More shamefully, each excess creates a crime:
But because you are prudent, each of you is able
Not to have failed to keep this legitimate limit.

The effects of wine among certain people.

God must be acknowledged and extolled in His gifts. Moreover, as concerns wedding feasts, they ought to serve merry piety and joy in the Lord: the beginnings should be made with prayers: let it be served for a long time with honest conversations concerning family life through marriage: let the end be with thanksgiving. Meanwhile, let the whole feast breathe a certain pious restoration and praise of the Lord. Let beastly gluttony be absent, etc. 4. comparisons: by which he demonstrates that all excess harms and does not profit, burdened by a wagon, a horse, a boat, and a bow extended too much, he leads.