The other narcotic : addressed especially and earnestly to abstainers from intoxicants / by Mrs. Hind Smith.

  • Hind Smith, Mrs.
Date:
Between 1870 and 1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The other narcotic : addressed especially and earnestly to abstainers from intoxicants / by Mrs. Hind Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/8
    NARCOTIC THE OTHER (Addressed especially and earnestly to Abstainers from Intoxicant*.} By ~1rs. Hind Smith, I AM aware that my subject is a somewhat delicate one. It affects the daily practice of some of my best friends, and is, alas! becoming more and more interwoven with the habits of society. At the very outset I wish it to be distinctly understood that my objections and protests against the use of tobacco are not from prejudice, but on principle, and although some may hold opinions contrary, I am obliged to believe that in most instances opinions contrary to my own are held either through ignorance of facts, or from the partiality with which people usually defend an indulgence —because they like it. Probably if they would consider the subject, they would take the same view as I do. I have not formed my opinions from those of others, but if personal nfluence is to be acknowledged at all in their formation, I may say how much I owe to the intelligent views held on this subject by the best of fathers and brothers, and subsequently by the best of husbands. It has been my privilege to associate with those who have made a stand in this matter; and so seriously do I regard myself that I do not court argument and discussion, but rather the honour of persuading my friends and especially my fellow-abstainers to think over the matter seriously, both as regards their well-being and their influence upon others, I have not space to go into the point of influence. As teetotalers, we admit its importance in relation to the drink. Our practice has not merely a selfish and personal object, but, while securing our own safety by abstinence, we stretch out over others the influence of our example and precept. In the same way ought we not, with so high an aim in one direction, to desire that all we do should be on the right side—the side we can safely urge everyone to take ? What better proof can we give of the depth of our own religious convictions, and the earnestness of our faith in Christianity, than