Permanent temperance documents, of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Permanent temperance documents, of the American Temperance Society. Vol. I. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    we smelt it, the odor of whiskey was distinctly visible; and when we applied the candle to a portion in a spoon, it actually burned blue—the lambent blue flame, characteristic of the poison, playing on the surface of the spoon for some seconds.” (l)r. Kirk's Address to the Leven Temperance Society, p. 6.) No wonder it destroys reason. It is a poison in the brain. And no wonder that those who take even a little of it, have less reason than those who take none; and that those who take it daily are so much more exposed, and their children also, to insanity, than those who entirely abstain from it. “ The love of strong drink,” says Dr. Peirson, “ and the proneness to mania, are, with respect to each other, interchangeable causes.” C. (p. 9.) Should each individual in our country adopt the same course, the following are some of the advantages which would result from it:— 1. They would enjoy better health, be able to perform more labor, and would live to a greater age. 2. The evils of intemperance would soon be done away ; for all who are now intemperate, and continue so, will soon be dead, and no others will be found to succeed them. 3. There will be a saving, every year, of more than thirty mil- lions of dollars, which are now expended for ardent spirits. There will be a saving of more than two thirds of all the expense of sup- porting the poor, which, in Massachusetts alone, w'ould amount to more than $600,000 annually. And there would be a saving of all that idleness and dissipation which intemperance occasions, and of the expense of more than two thirds of all the criminal prosecu- tions in the land. In one of our large cities, in which there were 1000 prosecutions for crimes, more than 800 of them were found to have sprung from the use of ardent spirits. 4. There would be a saving of a vast portion of sickness; and of the lives, probably, of 30,000 persons every year. Let these four considerations be added together, and traced in their various bearings and consequences upon the temporal and eternal welfare of men ; and then let each individual say, whether, in view of all the evils connected with the practice of taking ardent spirit, he can, in the sight of God, be justified in continuing the practice. That it is not necessary, has been fully proved. No one thinks it to be necessary, except those who use it. And they would not think so, if they were not in the habit of using it. Let any man leave off entirely the use of ardent spirit, for only one