The science temperance text-book : in relation to morals, chemistry, physiology, criticism, and history / [Frederic Richard Lees].

  • Frederic Richard Lees
Date:
1884-
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The science temperance text-book : in relation to morals, chemistry, physiology, criticism, and history / [Frederic Richard Lees]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    morality (as Life insurers commonly are) such ‘considerable numbers ’ gradually sink into real intemperance, what must be the proportion, in the community at large, and what, above all, amongst the ignorant, the neglected, and the depraved ? Since the growth of appetite actually follows, in the case of £ considerable numbers,’ the use of every narcotic, because narcotics tend to excess in all persons : and as that is an inseparable attribute of the use, so equally has the tendency of Example by the Respectable, the effect of multiplying the use and increasing the number of the users. One is as much a psychological development or law, as the other is a physical; and we must take account of both in estimating our individual and social responsibility. No man has better put the morality of example before the world than John Woolman—the holy ‘Friend’ who woke up the consciences of Christians in America to the guilt of Slaveholding, at a time when, like drinking now, it was supposed to be sanc¬ tioned as much by Scripture as it was by social opinion. In his Journal of the year 1755, he observes:—“Where those whose lives are for the most part regular, and whose examples have a strong-influence on the minds of others, adhere to some customs which poiv erf ally draw to the use oj more strong-liquor than pure wisdom allows, it hinders the spreading of the spirit of meekness, and strengthens the hands of the more excessive drinkers. ... If those who profess to be disciples of Christ, and are looked upon as leaders of the people, have that mind in them which was also in Christ, and so stand separate from every wrong way, it is a mea?is of help to the weaker I John Woolman had a clear perception of the cardinal truths of the Temperance