and entire innocence of character." Temperance is that which teaches us to regulate our desires and fears, so that in desiring and in shunning things, we may always follow Fortitude is concerned in labours and dangers, temperance in renouncing pleasures.

reason.

From these observations, we may with great propriety conclude, that physical temperance consists in the moderate use of those things which are nutritious and proper for human sustenance, and in abstinence from everything which is injurious and unnecessary. This definition, is, in every sense of the word, strictly applicable, because it not only comprehends the quantity but the quality also of those things which ought to enter into the composition of human diet. Sir William Temple, a writer of considerable eminence of the seventeenth century, remarks thus:"I do not allow the pretence of temperance to all such as are seldom or never drunk or fall into surfeits, for men may lose their health without losing their senses, and be intemperate every day without being drunk perhaps once in their lives; but that which I call temperance, is a regular and simple diet, limited by every man's experience of his own easy digestion, and thereby proportioning, as near as well can be, the daily repairs to the daily decays of our wasting bodies.* Sir William Temple then proceeds to apply this rule of temperance to the removal of a disease on which he has written largely, and enforces the necessity of rigorous abstinence from inebriating liquor on all ordinary occasions.

"Per

Another writer, in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, in reprobating the practice of intemperance, makes the following pertinent remarks:-"It is sad to consider how many will hear this charge, for one that will apply it to himself, for confident I am, that fifteen of twenty, this city over, (London) are drunkards, yea, seducing drunkards, in the dialect of Scripture, and by the law of God, which extends to the heart and the affections." haps," observes the same writer, "by the law of the land, a man is not taken for drunk except his eyes stare, his tongue stutter, his legs stagger; but by God's law, he is one that goes often to the drink, or that tarries long at it. Prov. xxiii. 30, 31. He that will be drawn to drink when he hath neither need of it, nor mind to it, to the spending of money, wasting of precious time, discredit of the Gospel,

• An Essay on the Cure of the Gout.-Miscellanea, Part I. 1677.

the stumblingblock of weak ones, and hardening associates. Briefly, he that drinks for lust, or pride, or covetousness, or fear, or good-fellowship, or to drive away time, or to still conscience, is a DRUNKARD.

The powerful influence which intoxicating liquors exercise on the human system, their strong tendency to lead to excess, their effects in inflaming the passions and enervating the mind, are sufficient indications, that even their moderate and habitual use is incompatible with a temperate and healthful condition of either mind or body.

The vice of intemperance during every stage of its progress, has been characterized by some prominent and peculiar features.

1. In the first place, it may be remarked, that the use of intoxicating liquors is an acquired habit. The influence which inebriating compounds exercise over the mental and physical constitution of man, is altogether the result of artificial feelings and impressions, superinduced on those with which the system is naturally endowed.

Providence, in wisdom and bounty, has supplied the wants of man in rich profusion. Animal and vegetable creation well stored with aliment, surround him on every side. Each substance, moreover, bears characteristic evidence of the design of its munificent Creator. The vast variety of vegetables and their fruits, which enter so largely into the diet of the human race, present evident relation between the nature of their composition, and the purposes to which they are designed to be appropriated. This observation applies with equal force to water, one of the most useful substances in nature.

Alcohol, on the contrary, in all its combinations, is devoid of these nutritious characteristics, and is found to be inimical to the healthy functions of the animal economy, and productive only of that injurious excitement, which subsides into morbid debility.

It is a humiliating reflection, that man is the only animal in creation accustomed to the use of intoxicating liquors. No analogous substances are found in the whole range of. animate creation. Alcoholic stimulants are purely the results of human ingenuity and invention, called into operation by the desire to gratify a sensual and sinful propensity. Mankind have thus themselves originated an evil, which has proved the severest moral and physical scourge that ever afflicted the human race.

Several prominent and striking facts are adduced in the

present place, to prove that the habit of vinous indulgence is altogether acquired.

Entire nations are known to have existed for ages in a state of comparatively superior health, comfort, and happiness, without the aid of intoxicating liquors.* When first offered to the inhabitants of those countries, they have, in general, evinced considerable aversion to their use; and have been reconciled to the practice only, by a conformity to the habits and persuasions of those civilized nations who have seduced them into the destructive vice of intoxication.

A corresponding illustration of this statement, may be found in the fact, that young persons, and in particular children, almost universally exhibit signs of repugnance, when first induced to taste of any kind of intoxicating liquor; which indications of disgust are not manifested, when they partake of the almost unlimited varieties of nutritious food.

The unnatural excitement which these liquors induce when first made use of, produces unpleasant sensations on the unvitiated palates of the young. The benevolent Creator has, in his wisdom, so arranged the constitution of man, that every article of a nutritious character is calculated to afford agreeable sensations of pleasure and refreshment to the temperate consumer. The excitement produced by alcoholic stimulus, however, becomes agreeable only when the system has for some time been habituated to its use; and, in fact, not until a series of artificial feelings have been created, which require for their continuance the repeated application of the stimulating agency by which they were first produced.

The varied sensations which inebriating compounds impart to the taste, furnish an additional proof that the habit of indulgence in their use is altogether acquired. The taste and flavour of these compounds have varied in almost every age of the world. The nausea and disagreeable sensations which most of them impart, have, in the first instance, to be conquered or rendered familiar by continued use, before a vitiated appetite can relish their reception. The Jews, for example, frequently mixed frankincense and

Mr. Buckingham states it to be his conviction, "judging from what he himself has seen and heard on the testimony of creditable writers, that onefifth of the entire population of the globe are abstainers from all intoxicating liquors." "A number," he remarks, "sufficiently large to show that they are not necessary to human existence, health, or enjoyment,

has invariably been found to follow concessions to sensual indulgence. The history of the nations of antiquity, and in particular of the Greeks and Romans, demonstrates the truth of this statement.

The effects of strong drink were known to the ancients as inimical to freedom and national prosperity. To prevent intemperance laws were framed against the introduction of wine. The ancient Suevi, for example, would not allow wine to be imported into their country, believing it to be pernicious to the vigour, both of the body and of the mind. Similar laws are found among the primitive regulations of other nations.

Until influenced by impure motives, these sanative enactments were rigorously enforced. As an increased taste for luxury began to prevail, the primitive aversion to wine however, gradually wore away. The deadly enemy became a cherished friend. Those admirable laws which had once been the safeguards of national virtue and prosperity were finally modified, relaxed, and virtually annulled. The consequences were degradation and ruin.

From the experience of every age it is manifest, that the prevailing notions concerning the nature of temperance and intemperance, have arisen and taken their tone, from the moral condition of the existing age. The inclinations and appetites of mankind insensibly influence their opinions, and from such a source, has the world too frequently derived its notions of the subject under consideration.

Democritus, as Pliny informs us, wrote a volume with the design to show, that no person ought to exceed four or six glasses of wine. Epictetus advances the following opinion:-"That man is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses; and though he be not drunk, he hath exceeded moderation." In comparatively modern times, striking examples are presented of the morals of the age, influencing considerations concerning the nature of temperance. A society, for instance, established about the sixteenth century, for the promotion of temperance, had its fundamental law constituted on the principle, that none of its members should drink more than fourteen glasses of wine daily. A certain general, in one of his regulations,

* Vinum ad se omninò importari non sinunt, quòd eâ re ad laborem ferendum remollescere Homines, atque effœminari arbitrantur.-Cæsar de Bell Gall. lib. 4.

Fragments, No. 3. Carter's Transl. 1758. p. 112.

ordered, that no officer who dined at his table should exceed two bottles of wine. Dr. Trotter, who adverts to this circumstance with somewhat of astonishment, records it as an honour to the British Navy, that in his time, the commanders-in-chief never allowed more at their tables than half a bottle to each guest.

*

The institution, in the present century, of Temperance Societies in this country and in America, forms a striking illustration. Many of these institutions had merely an ephemeral existence. Of those established, one class had for its object the advancement of temperance, by inculcating the moderate use of all kinds of intoxicating liquors. Another class still in operation, has for its fundamental regulation the moderate use of fermented liquors, but abstinence from ardent spirits. Each of these, however, evidences the existence, not only of erroneous notions concerning the nature and effects of intoxicating liquors, but the very general and deep-rooted appetite which exists for artificial and stimulating drinks.

An examination of these facts, irresistibly forces the conviction upon all unprejudiced minds, that the inclinations and appetites of mankind have invariably influenced their opinions in relation to the nature and limits of temperance. The consequences of these latitudinarian notions, are witnessed in the free use of strong drink in the present day, by those who deem themselves temperate and sober members of society.

To this class of men has been very appropriately assigned the appellation of sober drunkards. "It is not drinking spirituous liquors," remarks Dr. Trotter, "to the length of intoxication, that alone, constitutes intemperance. A man may drink a great deal-pass a large portion of his time at the bottle, and yet be able to fill most of the avocations of life. There are certainly, many men of this description, who have never been so transformed with liquor as to be unknown to their own house-dog, or so foolish in their appearance, as to be hooted by school-boys, that are yet to be considered as intemperate livers. These 'sober drunkards,' if I may be allowed the expression, deceive themselves as well as others; and though they pace slowly along the road to ruin, their journey terminates at the goal, bad health."+

A further examination of this subject, leads us to the * Trotter's Essay on Drunkenness, p. 157. †Trotter on Drunkenness, p. 177.