Mine was that most dangerous stage when a man believes himself John Barleycorn's master.

I had proved it to my satisfaction in the long years of work and study.

I could drink when I wanted, refrain when I wanted, drink without getting drunk, and to cap everything I was thoroughly conscious that I had no liking for the stuff.

During this period I drank precisely for the same reason I had drunk with Scotty and the harpooner and with the oyster pirates--because it was an act that men performed with whom I wanted to behave as a man.

These brilliant ones, these adventurers of the mind, drank.