Page:Crotchet Castle - Peacock (1831).djvu/46

 sucks up infection from water, wherever it exists on the face of the earth.

Well, sir, you have for you the authority of the ancient mystagogue, who said:. For my part I care not a rush (or any other aquatic and inesculent vegetable) who or what sucks up either the water or the infection I think the proximity of wine a matter of much more importance than the longinquity of water. You are here within a quarter of a mile of the Thames, but in the cellar of my friend, Mr. Crotchet, there is the talismanic antidote of a thousand dozen of old wine; a beautiful spectacle, I assure you, and a model of arrangement.