Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease.
- William Benjamin Carpenter
- Date:
- 1849
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Temperance and teetotalism : an inquiry into the effects of alcoholic drinks on the human system in health and disease. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![$ compatible with total abstinence from all such intoxicating beverages, whether in the form of ardent spirits, or as wine, beer, ale, porter, cider, etc., etc. ‘ 3. That persons accustomed to such drinks may, with perfect safety, discon- ! tinue them entirely, either at once, or gradually after a short time ‘ 4. That total and universal abstinence from alcoholic beverages of all sorts would greatly contribute to the health, the prosperity, the morality, and the hap- piness of the human race.’ [See p. 30.] „ Let us say, however, in limine, that whilst taking upon ourselves the earnest ; advocacy of these doctrines, we by no means wish to identify ourselves with all that has been written and uttered by the disciples of the total abstinence system. Too often their intemperance has passed from their cups to their language; the finger of pharisaical scorn has been pointed at the ‘ moderate drinkers,’ whose .consciences have not yet told them that there is any harm in the temperate use of fermented liquors; and even those who agree with them in their leading princi- ples, and who join with them in their practice, but who hesitate at sanctioning all that ignorant enthusiasts think fit to assert, have been stigmatised as enemies rather than as friends to thb great cause of emancipation. Now we most fully recognise the importance of earnest and awakening appeals to those who are sunk in the lethargic slavery of one of the most brutalising of all sensual indulgences; but we are certain that exaggeration never ultimately serves the interests of truth. No words can depict too strongly the evils of intemperance. No appeals can be too urgent or awakening to the blunted feelings of those who are ruining themselves both for time and eternity by an habitual indulgence in this overpower- ing propensity; but surely there is plenty of matter for the advocates of abstinence, without going out of their way to con- demn those who maintain that fermented liquors are the gifts of God, to be used in moderation, but not abused. We are quite sure that the manner in which their ublic proceedings have been conducted as kept many aloof, who would have been most valuable and influential advo- cates of this great cause of social and in- dividual reformation. The fact we be- lieve to be, that a large proportion of the intemperate denunciations and rash state- ments to which we allude have been put forth by men who have themselves felt all the tyranny of this dreadful slavery : and (as we have been informed by some most competent observers) they feel, on their emancipation from it, a sort of ex- citement that is almost uncontrollable, urging them to bear public testimony to j the evils from which they have escaped, and infusing into that testimony a strength that makes it operate powerful!y on the minds of those whom they desire to awaken, whilst it leads them (with the want of discrimination natural to men of imperfect education) to express the most unmitigated reprobation of those more especially who profess them- selves friends of temperance, but who do j not feel called upon to preach or to prac- tise total abstinence. Now we are quite content to brave their condemnation for the sake of what we consider to be truth; and, feeling satisfied, as we just now said, that the interests of truth cannot be served by exaggeration, we think it right fearlessly ■ to state that we cannot, with them, affirm that we consider alcohol in all its forms to be nothing else than a poison. We j cannot conscientiously go the length of denying that, under any circumstances, whether of health or disease, ihe admi- nistration of alcohol can be justified. We believe that if the whole world could be ; really temperate in the use of fermented liquors^ there would be no need of total abstinence societies. But we advocate their principles, because sad experience has shown that a large proportion of man- kind cannot be temperate in the use of I fermented liquors, and that nothing short 1 of total abstinence can prevent the con- 1 tinuance, in the rising generation, of the terrible evils which we have at present to I deplore;—because experience has further 1 shown that the reformation of those who are already habitually intemperate cannot be accomplished by any means short of entire abstinence from fermented liquors ; —and because experience has also proved that this reformation cannot be carried to its required extent without the moral in- fluence of the educated classes. Such in- fluence can only be afforded by example. ! There is no case in which its superiority over mere precept is more decided and obvious than in this. ‘ I practise total abstinence myself,’ is worth a thousand exhortations; and the miserable failure of all the advocates who cannot employ this argument should lead all those whose position calls upon them to exert their influence (and who are there who do not](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24919901_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
