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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    Fallacy of Confusion. 2 5 Kingsley add : “ Even if marriage was but one weed-field of temptations [are 1 weeds’ tempting?] it would be a greater deed to conquer its temptations than to flee from them in cowardly longings after ease and safety ” ? But, to complete the analogy with the use of narcotics, would he dare to recommend the creation of a new and illicit passion to help the victory ? The analysis of the elements of the problem thus brings us back to the old distinctions, and the old conclusions, of Aristoteles and of Cicero, as of every clear thinker since the world began :—The distinction between good and bad in things for special uses; between good and bad in states of mind and relations; in short, between vitiam and virtue —and so to the rule, that Temperance is not use alone, but proper-use, and for all unfit-use (for body, mind, or circumstance) Abstinence is the only temperance. § 20. Sir James Paget, and the Editor of the Spectator, with some other specious reasoners, have alleged against our views, that the drinking of intoxicating liquors is associated with the conquering and civilizing races of the world, while abstinence is connected with tribes remarkable for cruelty and conservatism! This broad statement, examined in detail, will be found to be grossly inaccurate, and involves besides, on the face of it, an immoral and incredible inference—namely, either that the vice of drunkenness by part of the world is no impediment to the mental progress of mankind, or that the measured use of narcotics, such as opium, tobacco, bang, and alcohol, is an influential factor in the cause of civilization ! (See the full exposure of this Fallacy-of-Confusion, in our historical chapter.) Here, in regard to the partial facts in sight of the objector, we need only observe, that a Sepoy rebellion, by men who use opium if not alcohol, is in no respect worse than the Irish massacres of Cromwell’s soldiers, or Monck’s sack of Dundee, or William’s bloody deed in Glencoe, or the French atrocities in Algiers, all of them