But other causes have also assisted; and it is curious to observe how the different changes in the modes of society bear upon one another.

The alteration in the convivial habits which we are noticing in our own country may be partly due to alteration of hours.

The old plan of early dining favoured a system of suppers, and after supper was a great time for convivial songs and sentiments.

This of course induced drinking to a late hour.

Most drinking songs imply the night as the season of conviviality--thus in a popular madrigal:-- "By the gaily circling glass We can tell how minutes pass; By the hollow cask we're told How the waning _night_ grows old." And Burns thus marks the time:-- "It is the moon, I ken her horn, That's blinkin' in the lift sae hie; She shines sae bright, to wyle us hame, But by my sooth she'll wait a wee." The young people of the present day have no idea of the state of matters in regard to the supper system when it was the normal condition of society.