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July 11 Opinion page of this newspaper: In the final paragraph of his syndicated column, George Will attributed to Benjamin Franklin the statement, “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
I am a big fan of George Will and enjoy reading his columns. I also recognize that the column in question is actually not about Ben Franklin but about beer, and was apparently prompted by the recently announced intention of Belgian mega-brewer In-Bev to acquire a controlling interest in Anheuser-Busch, considered by many an American icon.
My concern is with Will’s substitution of “beer” for “wine” in Franklin’s famous wine accolade, found in an English translation of his 1779 letter to Abbe Morelet (so likely written in French), in which Franklin famously calls wine “a constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.” To the best of my knowledge, there is no reason to think Franklin ever made any similar comment about beer.
Franklin’s recent and highly regarded biography “The First American,” by H.W. Brand, makes no references to beer, and very few 18th century beer references appear in dictionaries of quotations such as “Bartlett’s Quotations.” There are, however, ample 18th century references to wine, such as:
“Wine lets no lovers unrewarded go.”
— Alexander Pope
“Inflaming wine, pernicious to mankind,
Unnerves the limbs and dulls the noble mind.”
— Alexander Pope, trans. Homer, Iliad
“Wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.”
— Alexander Pope, Homer, Odyssey
“Wine can clear the vapors of despair
And Make us slight as air.”
— JohnGay,
The Beggar’s Opera
“Wine is a turn-coat; first a friend, and then an enemy.”
— Thomas Fuller
“Take counsel in wine, but resolve afterwards in water.”
— Benjamin Franklin
“Wine rejoices the heart of man, and joy is the mother of all virtue.”
— J.W. Goethe
“Wine … is one of the noblest cordials in nature.”
— John Wesley
“Wine gives great pleasure, and eery pleasure is of itself agood.”
— Samuel Johnson
“Wine is the devine juice of September.”
— Francois Voltaire
“For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red.”
— Book of Common Prayer
Amen.
John Breitlow is a retired Winona State University speech professor who began learning about good wine in the 1950s while serving in Vienna, Austria, with U.S. armed forces.
