have gained their attention, and opened their eyes to its tremendous evils, that they will be willing to give up the traffic in it.

Another cause why dealers in ardent spirits consider their excuses strong and conclusive, is to be found in their false graduation of the morality of the various branches of their trade. It has been very common to attribute intemperance and the causes of it, entirely to the lower classes, and to dram-shops. Some dealers in intoxicating liquor by the gallon, commend themselves for not selling it by the glass. And others again, rejoice because they are wholesale merchants, and do not retail at all; whilst the importer of molasses, with his eye fixed upon the trucks which are carrying away the cargo he has just sold to the distiller, lays, as a "flattering unction to his soul," the reflection that he has nothing to do with the manufacture of poison. So easily do men deceive themselves. So readily can they shut out the obvious fact, that dram-shops could not exist a day without grocers, nor grocers without merchants, nor merchants without distillers, nor distillers without importers of molasses. The truth is, there are no degrees of morality in this business. It is all wrong, and equally wrong. The man that sells annually twenty thousand hogsheads of rum, either as owner or on commission, is in the same condemnation with the man who sells twenty thousand glasses. Both help to keep up the trade, and it is the trade, every part and portion of it, which is the evil. No matter at what part of the poisonous stream we stand; if we are increasing or hastening its current, then we are in part the cause of its deleterious effects. We make drunkards, increase the amount of misery in the world, and assist in crowding the prison, the hospital, and the grave-yard. It matters not whether we deal out rum by the gill, sell it by the gallon, roll it out of our stores in barrels, send away ship-loads of it to make drunkards on the other side of the ocean, or employ our vessels in bringing home the raw material. But to this truth, the producers and sellers of ardent spirits must be blind, or else they would not, they could not, continue to carry on any branch of their destructive trade.

The prevalence and force of the excuses we have been noticing, are somewhat accounted for, in the third place, by the consideration that until within a few years, the traffic

in ardent spirits was universally looked upon as reputable. The dealer in this article does not readily see why the reputation of his employment should be so suddenly changed. He is, perhaps, unconscious of the progress of the temperance movement, and is astonished at its entrance into his warehouse, with its strong appeals to his benevolent feelings, his patriotism, his sense of accountableness to God for the influence of his business upon the community. And yet this condition of ignorance or inattention is so strange that nothing but a knowledge of the existence of numerous instances of men, who, on being enlightened with regard to the evils of intemperance, have given up the trade in alcohol immediately, would induce us to believe in its existence. But such unquestionably is the fact. There are men, apparently altogether insensible to the great change that has been going on. Though thousands have given up the business they continue to pursue, and tens of thousands have pledged themselves to abstain for ever from the use of the article in which they traffic, their curiosity does not seem excited on the subject. The community has made a discovery, but they do not appear to be aware of it. It has found out that their business causes great harm, but they are unconscious of this alteration in public opinion. There is a voice in the land, such as St. Paul's to the Athenians. "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men, every where, to repent." But to this voice they are deaf. It will not be so always. The successful crusade against the slave-trade, bids the friends of temperance not to despair. Inquiry is constantly excited. The attention of men is more and more aroused; and we confidently expect the day to arrive when men would as soon steal their fellow-men from their native land, to make of them an article of commerce, as deal in that liquid fire, which spreads sorrow and ruin wherever it goes.

There is one other reason for the factitious power, which the excuses of those who produce and sell ardent spirits have over their minds, which is worthy of notice. It is the tendency there is among many to undervalue the efforts and example of individuals in the cause of temperance. If all who profess themselves the friends of this cause, with their lips, were its practical supporters, and if their abundant good wishes, could be exchanged for energetic action and VOL. XIV. -N. S. VOL. IX. NO. I. 6

vigorous coöperation, it would go on, achieving far greater victories than it now does. But there is too much humility among some men on this subject. They are rather remarkable for thinking meanly of their personal influence, whenever they are asked to join a temperance society, or to abstain from the traffic in ardent spirits. This false modesty is sadly out of place. In carrying on the temperance reformation, individuals are every thing; and they are every thing for the plain reason, that they make up the public for whose welfare this reformation is commenced. "I am but one man and cannot do much; we can hear some person say. "You are but one man," (we would almost indignantly reply,) "you are but one man and cannot do much!" Suppose every man should say this, where would our cause, our country, the souls of our brethren be? "But one

"But

man!" Know you not that it is only by moving one man at a time, that the community is ever moved? Feelings and opinions may rush through society like an electric shock, it is true, but even then they pass distinctly from individual to individual, and occupy time in their progress. one man, and you cannot do much!" Look into history and see how it has been. How was Christianity introduced and spread, - did the world rise up like one man to receive it? Or did its beautiful truths take the multitude captive, by impressing heart after heart? How was the reformation commenced and carried on? By an unconcerted and simultaneous movement among the disaffected in the Romish church; or by the boldness and zeal of Luther, and the awakening of one mind after another? How, too, was our revolution effected? By all the colonies, lifting themselves like a mass, and throwing off the yoke of bondage? Or was the army of patriots enlisted man by man? Every one can answer these questions. And as it was in these great reformations, as they may all be called, so must it be with the temperance movement. Each individual must be interested and active in it. The cup is not full, if a drop be wanting. The friends of temperance cannot spare a single man, because the excuse which will justify the desertion or lukewarmness of one, will as well justify that of a thousand. It is as one drunkard reforms, as one temperate drinker abstains, as one producer gives up his distillery, one vender ceases to sell, that the work goes on prosperously. Let it then never

be forgotten, that the cause is prospered or retarded by individuals; and let every man feel that the progress of temperance depends, in part, upon him.

We have thus, as we proposed, discussed the question as to the morality of the production and sale of ardent spirits, as a drink. We have also examined the arguments, commonly urged in the justification of this traffic, and endeavoured to account for the continuance in it of so many respectable, intelligent, and virtuous men. We have spoken plainly, but we trust not in such a manner as to wound the feelings of any. We know that kind and true words are the proper weapons for the friends of temperance; and we would not intentionally use any other. We ask for our remarks a candid perusal, and if they shall do any thing to break up the trade in that which is the source of so much misery and crime, we shall have had our reward.

ART. IV. Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers, and the Investigation of Truth. By JOHN ABERCROMBIE, M. D., F. R. S. New York. J. & J. Harper. 1832. 18mo. pp. 349.

Ir could hardly have been dreamed one hundred years ago, that metaphysics would ever become fit "Knowledge for the People," a matter to be applied to the common concerns of life, and made intelligible to the common reader. For, as the old philosophers must have looked upon modern simplification in the light of degeneracy, all who counted upon the progressive improvement of the race, must have been quite astonished on being informed that, instead of a successful hunting after the "essences," and "species," and other favorites of theirs, we had altogether given up the chase, called ourselves but children in the school of philosophy, and had drawn little else from our studies than a conviction of the errors of past ages. With much pains we have laid the foundation, and the superstructure has already commenced. In the mean while, as other parts of the circle have been successively shown to the now inquiring many, it was not meet that the centre should be long kept from

public view. At the same time it was most important that it should be seen in a clear light. It was necessary that all the discoveries of modern science should be applied to it, for the better removing of those errors, which the sanction of antiquity had made so venerable. Still another character was wanting besides simplicity and clearness, viz., a practical character, as contrasted with the curious speculations of former times, that had no foundation in fact, and no useful application, Much has indeed been said against applying the standard of utility to mental science; but if the subject be rightly looked into, it will be found, we think, that the dispute is merely verbal. No one of modern days will undertake seriously to affirm, that utility is not the proper test of all science; but care will be taken that the word be used in its very broadest, which is at the same time its truest sense. The sciences are all useful in two ways, directly and indirectly. In most of them, the former is the more important. With metaphysics, it is the reverse. The study of intellectual philosophy is of far greater moment as affecting our habits and modes of thinking, than as having any immediate bearing upon our daily actions. It is true, however, that beginners in the science put but little value upon this indirect influence, for experience only can show us its full extent. In times like ours, then, it is specially needful, in order to make the science attractive, that we exhibit it to the world as an agent for bettering our condition giving us rules, which all may understand, for improving our mental powers, and thereby enlarging our means of well-being.

mad bene beateque vivendum."

We have spoken of what was wanting in the literary world; and come now to that which has supplied, in some measure, this deficiency, the admirable work before us. Dr. Abercombie's book does not purport to be a treatise. Its modest title is, "Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers"; and these inquiries we may judge that he is amply fitted to pursue, even from his medical character alone. For the important office of bringing together authentic facts, especially in that most interesting branch of the subject, the effect of cerebral and other diseases upon the mental action, a physician, as Dr. Abercrombie well remarks, is peculiarly qualified; and the observation would seem to be borne out by the fact that so many acute metaphysicians