[ 264 ] 
ending at length in drowfinefs and ftupidity. 
Spirituous liquors tend to infpire the more angry 
and morofe paffions, which often terminate in fury 
and outrage. The former brings on intoxication 
in a more flow, gradual manner; the latter feizes 
the brain almoft immediately, without leaving time 
for recollection. 
This material difference in their effects may be 
eafily accounted for, if we confider that it is the 
{pirituous part of liquors only that caufes intoxica- 
tion, and that this can never rife to fuch a height, 
when the fpirit is in a tempered and diluted form, 
as when poured down in its ardent ftate, and un- 
allayed. Hence double-diftilled fpirits, though 
ever fo genuine in their kind, are more fuddenly 
deftru€ive than the weaker proof fpirits. This 
potent poifon, when taken in excefs, foon deprives 
men of their reafon, the only faculty that elevates 
them above the brutes. It overthrows memory, 
judgment, and all the intellectual powers, intro- 
ducing a temporary phrenzy, or favage madnefs, 
which finks them beneath the loweft of the brutal 
tribe. For it fuddenly converts a rational inoffen- 
five being into a fury, ripe for every fpecies of mif— 
chief and extravagancy, which in his cooler hours 
he would contemplate with horror and amaze- 
ment. It prompts him to wreak his vengeance 
indifcriminately, whether on his companions, or on 
glafles, furniture, and other inanimate bodies. As 
| foon 
