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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    the new reform. 1 An Address to the Churches and Congre¬ gations of the Western District of Fairfield County ’ (New Haven : 1813, pp. 32), chiefly written by the Rev. Hem an Humphrey, contains the earliest distinct enunciation of the doctrine of abstinence from all intoxicants, and of the complementary remedies for intemperance. “ The ravages of this sin are only streams—habitual drinking is the fountain : and while the fountain remains, the hope of stopping the streams is vain—the hope of an ideal. Were the present race of drunk¬ ards annihilated from the earth, would not our habits make more ? How long before another crop would spring up to burden our land, blast our welfare, and multiply widows and orphans among us ? These ravages the world has seen—has looked on with astonishment, and despaired of a remedy. Citizen after citizen has become infected—and nothing is done. Drinking has rapidly increased, till liquor is everywhere. No other people ever indulged so universally, from the highest to the lowest, in their use of ardent spirits, as the people of this country, i.e. the free, educated, and religiously disciplined citizens of New England. Dram-shops are multiplied, so that in a Christian land, these altars of Bacchus immeasurably outnumber the temples of the living God. Not only do men drink, but women also; and even children are early initiated into the schools of intemperance. Their natural antipathy to spirits is cheated and overcome by a plen¬ tiful admixture of sweets. Thus the barrier which nature has erected to keep them from drunkenness, a parent’s hand removes.” Under Part II., rum is shown to be destitute of nourish¬ ment, debilitating in hot and dangerous in cold weather. C£ Some few scattering individuals are still left that use no spirit, and they are noted in their neighborhoods for tiring out all that labour with them. . . . Look back to the third generation, when liquor, in the field of labour, was utterly unknown. IVhat zuas then the work of one day now requires two for its performance. The well attested accounts of what their grandfathers did, the present generation regards as the mere fables of doting old age. Let them attempt the piece which was their grandfather’s day’s work. At night, while they looked round with vexation upon what was not finished, they would find whether the present generation had been made strong or weak by rum. If ardent spirits assist in study [brain work], why is it that in the Colleges of New England, ardent spirits are totally prohibited by a permanent law ?
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