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with, because the savings of the temperate poor would be reserved for occasions of extraordinary necessity. No state of things can be more dangerous to national welfare, than the decay of personal independence. When men are ordinarily induced to apply for support to public or private charities, they are in danger from the degradation to which the mind is thereby more or less subjected of losing that spirit of personal freedom, which is both a powerful and honourable stimulus to industry and perseverance. Let an examination be made of the great mass of persons thus applying for relief, and there is every probability that a large majority, will be found to have been brought to that degrading condition, from the direct or indirect influence of intemperance.

Man is evidently intended to be both a benevolent and a social being. His nature requires the endearing bonds of human sympathy and reciprocal aid. Strong drink uniformly exercises a selfish influence over its votaries. It detaches a man as it were from his natural disposition, alienates him from his social attachments and duties, paralyzes his sense of benevolent obligation, and creates a centre of feelings and sympathies in his vitiated affections, purely selfish and personal. A principal source of human happiness in our present state of existence, is to be found in the endearing relations of social and domestic intercourse and enjoyment. A slight review of the effects of intoxicating liquors, will show that their habitual use is opposed to these truly rational and exquisite pleasures. Inebriating liquors not only make man a selfish being, but they form strong inducements for him to seek the pleasures which society affords from home. The irritability of mind occasioned by stimulating liquors, forms an insuperable obstacle to domestic happiness, and hence the flight of their wretched victims from the bosom of an affectionate family to the savage haunts of intemperance and vice. The domestic scenes of many of our celebrated lovers of strong drink present convincing examples of these dreadful results of intoxication, upon the social and domestic relations of life.

PART II.

CHAPTER VII. .

MORAL CAUSES OF INTEMPERANCE.

Is is't a custom?

Aye marry it:

But to my mind, though I am native here

And, in a manner born, it is a custom

More honour'd in the breach than the observance.

This heavy headed revel, east and west

Makes us traduced and tax'd of other nations;

They class us drunkards, and with swinish phrase

Soil our addition: and, indeed, it takes

From our achievements though performed at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.-HAMLET.

INTEMPERANCE has been shown to exercise a baneful influence on national and individual welfare. An investigation, therefore, of the causes which have produced and fostered this injurious vice is of paramount importance, especially to those who suggest remedial measures, A primary cause of intemperance will be found to consist in the desire to alleviate bodily pain, or assuage mental anguish. Heedless of the consequences, the temporary relief which they afford have induced mankind, almost on every occasion, to resort to the use of alcoholic stimulants. A prominent cause of intemperance is discovered in the delusive notions which have obtained, in all ages of the world, about the beneficial properties of intoxicating liquors. These notions are not only materially strengthened by, but in a great measure depend upon, the immediate and agreeable effects which they produce on the animal powers. Like the waters of

Lethe, they have been supposed to impart oblivion to the soul, and freedom from the anxieties and cares of life :Animæ quibus altera fato

Corpora debentur, Lethei ad fluminis undam
Securos latices, et longa oblivia potant.*

The ancient poets contributed materially to the currency of this delusion. Horace in one of his odes contends that indulgence in wine is the most effectual method of driving away care and sorrow :

Neque

Mordaces aliter diffugiuut solicitudines.+

That celebrated poet sounds the praise of intemperance in the following manner :—

"Ebrietas quid non designat? operta recludit

Spes jubet esse ratas: in prælia trudit inertem,
Sollicitis animis onus eximit: addocet artes.
Fæcundi calices, quem non fecere disertum ?
Contracta quem non in paupertate solutum."
Ovid also thus wreathes the cup with praise :-
"Vina parant animos, faciuntque coloribus aptos.
Cura fugit, multo diluiturque mero.

Tunc veniunt risus, tunc pauper cornua sumit,
Tunc dolor et curæ, rugaque frontis abit.
Tunc aperit mentes, ævo rarissima nostro
Simplicitas, artes executiente Deo."

The odes of Anacreon are familiar to every votary of Bacchus, and are constantly echoed in praise of wine. Anacreon was a fascinating poet, but an abandoned and degraded debauchee. The effusions of Horace and Anacreon abound with glowing encomiums on wine and its convivial associations, but rarely, if ever, do they present to their readers a faithful representation of the reverse side of the picture. The poets of old unfortunately embodied in attractive imagery, sentiments rather in accordance with the vitiated notions of the age in which they flourished, than in unison with the purest principles of virtue and morality.

The productions of modern poets have been not less * Virgil Æneid, lib. vi. v. 713.

Lib. i. ode 18. Athenæus however states, of the drinking songs of Anacreon, that he feigned them, and that he lived in a temperate manner.Deipnost. x. 7.

injurious in their tendency, and have greatly contributed to the credit and support of this popular fallacy. Some have attributed to intoxicating liquor the power of increasing the comfort of the humbler classes, and have delighted to associate it with all their festive occasions. Thus by one writer, it has been described as the poor

man's

"Sweet oblivion of his daily care."

while a flattering illusion has been cast over the opposite picture of endless miseries resulting from unlawful indulgence. Bloomfield, in his popular poem, "the Farmer's Boy," speaks of malt liquor as a "sovereign cordial;" and Goldsmith unfortunately supports the same delusion. The latter writer thus laments the declining prosperity of the village ale-house :—

"Low lies that house where nut-brown draughts inspired,
Where grey-beard mirth and smiling toil retired ;
Where village statesmen talk'd with looks profound,
And news, much older than the ale, went round.
Obscure it sinks, nor shall it more impart

An hour's importance to the poor man's heart."

A moment's reflection will convince the impartial mind of the injurious tendency of exhibiting, in language so clear and so beautiful, sentiments so false in sympathy and pernicious in tendency as those contained in the above quotations. In this manner, however, the sanction of superior talents has too often been lent to perpetuate a vice most odious in its character, and destructive in its effects.

The poetry of Burns, the bard of Scotland, has perhaps, more than any other of like nature contributed to perpetuate and strengthen the practice of drinking. Burns thus addresses whiskey as the muse which inspired his lays.

O, thou my muse! guid auld Scotch drink :
Whether thro' wimpling worms thou jink,
Or, richly brown, ream o'er the brink,

In glorious feam,

Inspire me, till I lisp and wink,

To sing thy name!

The two succeeding verses contain strong encomiums on this fell destroyer of human happiness :

Food fills the wame, an' keeps us livin':
Tho' life's a gift no worth receivin',
When heavy dragg'd wi' pine and grievin' ;
But oil'd by thee,

The wheels o' life

gae down-hill scrievin',
Wi' rattlin glee.

Thou clears the head o' doited lear;
Thou cheers the heart o' drooping care;
Thou strings the nerves o' labour sair,
At's weary toil;

Thou even brightens dark despair

Wi' gloomy smile.

The next verse depicts in expressive language the estimation in which it is held in his native land.

Thou art the life o' public haunts;
But thee, what were our fairs and rants?
Ev'n godly meetings o' the saints,

By thee inspired,

When gaping they besiege the tents,

Are doubly fired.

Burns thus concludes,

Fortune! if thou'll but gie me still
Hale breeks, a scone, and whiskey gill,
And rowth o' rhyme to rave at will,
Take a' the rest,

And deal't about as thy blind skill

Directs the best.

The whole of this poet's writings abound with delusive praises of strong drink, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that thousands of his countrymen, have, in admiration of the beauty of his language, imbibed notions, and adopted practices, injurious in their tendency and fatal in their results. A poet of the same nation thus deplores the tendency of Burns' verses :—

Robin Burns, in many a ditty

Loudly sings in whiskey's praise;
Sweet the sang! the mair's the pity,
E'er on it he war'd sic lays.

Ignorance and poverty, combined with extreme toil and care, form a prolific and very general source of intemperance. Ignorance and sensuality have ever been united. Men possessed neither of moral principle nor of intellectual strength, are but too prone to seek enjoyment in

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