1 827.] The Philosophy of Drunkenness. 603 



only place of refuge. The mere adoption of any course which enables 

 the lower orders to divert themselves, within doors, in some other way 

 than by drinking the enabling them to read (no matter to what purpose, 

 or on what subjects) will everyday tend more and more to wean them from 

 the habit of intoxication. 



4 Ebriety prevails to an alarming degree among the lower orders of society. 

 It exists more in towns than in the country, and more among mechanics than hus- 

 bandmen. Most of the misery to be observed among the working classes springs 

 from this source. No persons are more addicted to the habit, and all its attendant 

 vices, than the pampered servants of the great. Innkeepers, musicians, actors, and 

 men who lead a rambling and eccentric life, are exposed to a similar hazard. Hus- 

 bands sometimes teach their wives to be drunkards by indulging them in toddy, 

 and such fluids, every time they themselves sit down to their libations," 



All people who congregate much, and who travel much, are drinkers. 

 A man who lives at houses of public entertainment must call for and pay 

 for liquor. With such, its consumption can hardly be esteemed a matter 

 of choice. 



" Women frequently acquire the vice by drinking porter and ale while nursing. 

 These stimulants are usually recommended to them, from well meant but mistaken 

 motives, by their female attendants. Many fine young women are ruined by this 

 detestable practice. Their persons become gross, their milk unhealthy, and a 

 foundation is too often laid for future indulgence in liquor. 



" The frequent use of cordials, such as noyau, shrub, kirsch-waser, cura9oa, and 

 anisette, sometimes leads to the practice. The active principle of these liqueurs 

 is neither more nor less than ardent spirits." 



This observation, though unsavoury in its character, is not the less deserv- 

 ing attention. The cases to which it applies are little heard of, because 

 there is an interest, where they occur, in their concealment ; but they 

 cannot be too cautiously guarded against; for the ruin which attends them, 

 where they do arise, is overwhelming. 



Upon the question that " men of genius arc often unfortunately addicted 

 to drunkenness," we should be induced rather to differ from our author, 

 and to substitute the charge that they were so. The men whom we know 

 as men of high talent in the present day are almost invariably sober men. 

 The fact is, fashion alone has an immense power in a matter of this kind. 

 Thirty years ago, a man could hardly go much into what is called " good 

 company," without drinking hard. Ill habits were acquired in early life, and 

 especially at College, from the same cause. While such men as Pitt, Fox, 

 Sheridan, and a still greater personage whom it would be irreverent 

 now to remind of youthful follies were understood to make it rather 

 a point of emulation which should swallow the greatest quantity of 

 liquor, and indulge in the strongest potations to be a fine gentleman was to 

 drink a slight mis-statement of the circumstances made lads read not that 

 "to be a fine gentleman was to drink" but that "to drink was to be a fine 

 gentleman ;" and the habit of drinking became one which everj young 

 man of rank, at his setting out in life, felt it his duty to acquire. The case 

 is otherwise now. 



The author, however, fairly says, in concluding this part of his sub- 

 ject 



" We need not endeavour to trace farther the remote causes of drunkenness. A 

 drunkard is rarely able to recall the particular circumstances which made him so. 

 The vice creeps upon him insensibly, and he is involved in its fetters before he is 

 aware. It is enough that we know the proximate cause, and also the certain con- 



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