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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    Prof. Seeley’s Ecce Homo. What will education-mongers say to the following? “We naturally ask, how it happens that our accumulated morcu means, and especially Christianity, fail to do that for us, which a false system of religion, or the exercise of reason, or the power of opinion and law, have been able to do for the Greeks and Romans, the Asiatics generally, and the followers of the Arabian pretender ? Do we not believe our religion with that sufficient fulness of assent and power oj conviction to render it effectual l Do we misapprehend its nature and design ; viewing it too much as a theory of articles of faith, and a grant of privileges, and too little as a code of laws and a guide to virtue? Is the progress of intellect attended with danger to morals ; and have superior knowledge and acuteness served to furnish ingenious apologies for vice, and helped men to a latitude of interpretation on the subject of their duty, and resulted in imparting only sufficient light to enable them to wander out of the way ? ” An ‘Address delivered before the Massachusetts Society for Suppressing Intemperance] May 31, 1816, by Jesse Apple- ton, D.D., President of Bowdoin College (Boston), says :— “ Regarding the subject merely in relation to political economy, the suppression of intemperance imperiously claims the attention of the statesman and patriot. But this diminution of wealth, vast as it really is, may be regarded, perhaps, as among the most moderate even of the political evils resulting from the vice, If we estimate this enormous sum merely as a loss, our calculation will be materially incorrect. That mass of ardent spirits, for which it is paid, becomes a subtle and powerful agent in relaxing the morals, and prostrating the physical strength, of its consumers; in which number are many from whom the country might expect useful labours in peace, and honorable services in war. Again, the strength of a nation does not consist merely in smews, bones, and muscles. The same quantity of physical power w ill be more or less efficient in proportion to the confidence, union, and wisdom with which it is exerted. A small number, well united, will accom¬ plish more than a greater number under the influence of mutual jealousy. But union and confidence can be supported on no other foundation than that of moral principle. This is the potent ligature by which the vari¬ ous parts are reduced to the most advantageous and beautiful order, and preserved in their respective places. Now, as intemperance is the volun¬ tary subjugation of reason to appetite, it deadens moral sensibility, and obliterates all distinction between virtue and vice.
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