INTEMPERANCE.
The histories of all nations show that, in the infancy of society, man has few wants. Food for the sustenance of life, clothing for the covering of his person, and a habitation to shelter him from the wind and the storm, form the chief objects of his desire; and these he is easily enabled to supply from the rich storehouse of nature, which the bountiful Creator has furnished for his use. The earth has never ceased to reward the industry of man; and his daily necessities being thus provided for, his future worldly wants occupy but a small share of his thoughts.
As mankind multiply and associate together in cities and towns, their attention is directed to other means of procuring the necessaries of life. Trade, manufactures, and commerce offer ample opportunities for the exercise of talent and industry; and the simplicity and contentment of rural life are exchanged for a more artificial state of society. The accumulation of property henceforth becomes an object of general pursuit, and the busy mind of man is occupied in forming and digesting plans to ensure such a result. Should prosperity attend his undertakings, and crown his labours with increase, he will not be slow in acquiring a taste for additional comfort and enjoyment, which his improved circumstances have placed within his reach. Thus the wants of man increase with his means of satisfying them. They are no longer confined to the simple necessaries of life, but embrace those elegancies and luxuries which owe their origin to the increase of wealth, the refinement of education, and the intercourse of society. Surplus capital thus finds ample and ready means of occupation in ministering to the growing wants of the community. Various trades, arts and professions are introduced, which open up new sources of employment; a stimulus is given to industry, and the powers of the mind are brought into operation to diffuse information and instruction through the land. Thus national wealth, education, and refinement advance together; and the riches which found entrance in one direction, find their way, through various channels, to every ramification of society, as the blood which flows from the heart circulates through every part of the human system.
So long as surplus wealth thus extends, and promotes a nation’s prosperity, it is legitimately employed. But there are certain limits within which it ought to be confined. The morality, intelligence, and industry of the people are the bulwarks of national greatness; and if, by the introduction of any article of luxury or common diet, these barriers are weakened or thrown down, and the flood-gates of immorality, ignorance, and idleness opened, their dark tide will begin to flow, and threaten the best interests of the country. This result is shown by the histories of all those nations which reached the summit of wealth and power by the exercise of temperance, and whose downfall was hastened by their intemperance, producing idle and licentious habits, discord, effeminacy, and a spirit of dependence. Such were the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.
Though there are distinctions of rank and station in society, there is a mutual dependence throughout the community at large, similar to the connexion existing among the members of the human body. “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” The man whom wealth has exempted from the common lot of humanity, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” is as dependent on the cultivator of the soil, the manufacturer, and the mechanic, as they are upon him. Hence all in theirseveral stations are equally the guardians of the peace, happiness, and prosperity of the nation to which they belong; and it becomes both their duty and their interest, either to prevent the introduction of any traffic of an injurious character, or to expel that from the land which may have been found to have such a tendency.
The facility with which ardent spirits are obtained in this country, cannot but be regarded as the cause of those habits of intemperance which deface the fair page of our moral history. Drunkenness prevails to a lamentable extent throughout the land, and is the fruitful source of idleness, poverty, immorality, and crime. So far from being diminished, it seems rather on the increase; and the fearful change which it has wrought in the character of our artisans and labouring population, calls for the adoption of some measure to arrest its course.
Ardent spirits are destructive of health, property, and morals; unfit to be used by persons in health, being destitute of any nutritious quality; and the traffic in them is injurious to the prosperity of the country. Besides the misery which the use of them inflicts on individuals and families, it greatly augments the national expenditure. It increases the poor’s rates by increasing pauperism; it enhances the expense of judicial proceedings by promoting crime; and our hospitals and lunatic asylums are indebted to the same cause for by far the greater proportion of their wretched inmates. If the money wasted in the purchase of this worse than useless superfluity, were spent on articles of real utility, a stimulus would be given to trade, manufactures, and commerce.
Such being the consequences of the traffic in ardent spirits, as proved by incontrovertible evidence, the welfare of the nation calls for its suppression. This must be accomplished, not by an appeal to the legislature for an Act of Parliament to abolish the trade, but by enlightened public opinion. If the community be convinced of the noxious qualities of ardent spirit, and the vicious and immoral consequences to which habits of drinking lead, they will cease to buy, and the traffic must come to an end. But this object cannot be attained till the nation rise as one man to crush this enemy to its happiness. This is the result which the institutions calledTemperance Societiesaim to accomplish. The means they employ is simply the diffusion of information through the land, with a view to correct public opinion, and unite men and women in the practice of total abstinence from distilled spirits as an article of ordinary use. They act upon the well-established maxim that prevention is better than cure; and their first solicitation is to gain the countenance and support of the sober, temperate, respectable, and influential classes of the community, whose combined example may operate upon the mass of the population. Such being their principle and object, they deserve the support and assistance of every friend to humanity and every lover of his country.
In most quarrels there is a fault on both sides.—A quarrel may be compared to a spark, which cannot be produced without a flint, as well as a steel; either of them may hammer on wood for ever, no fire will follow.
Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.—Pope.
Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.—Pope.
Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.—Pope.
Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.—Pope.
To this little fish we are said to be indebted for one of the grandest and most useful inventions since the world began. It is thus described:—It swims on the surface of the sea, on the back of its shell, which exactly resembles the hull of a ship; it raises two feet like masts, and extends a membrane between, which serves as a sail; the other two feet are employed as oars. This fish is usually found in the Mediterranean.