MOVTHI-Y REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 



579 



any matter that relates to it ; for it is not to be conceived that, with the eyes 

 of their understanding open, they would commit these cruelties and abet these 

 crimes. But, what is more mad than all, some people will coolly talk about 

 the benefits and advantages of ardent spirits, in the face of inflictions and ca- 

 lamities like these. Why, even supposing them to have all the advantages 

 that their warmest advocates ever assigned to them, to pretend to weigh these 

 against the mass of crime and misery they occasion, and to defend them on 

 such grounds as these, is positively worse than the drivelling of an idiot. 

 Common sense must sit on thorns when she is obliged to listen to such mi- 

 serable drivelling, and to hear persons who are, to all outward appearance, 

 looking rational, proving themselves insane !" 



The author afterwards again adverts to the evils produced by the consump- 

 tion of ardent spirits, and then goes on to maintain that much might be done 

 by the co-operation of respectable people to avert the progress of drunkenness. 



" But to return to the more immediate thread of our argument. You say I 

 have exaggerated the evils produced by the sale of ardent spirit. I deny it. 

 Ask the physicians of our hospitals, the keepers of our alms-houses, peniten- 

 tiaries, and jails. Ask the judges of the land, and by their testimony it will 

 appear that there is quite mischief and misery enough produced by the sale of 

 ardent spirit to make it the desire of every good man to put an end to it ; 

 and he who can put his own gratification in competition with such an object 

 as this, or even look coldly and carelessly upon it — an object which is the 

 very salvation cf his country, and the rescue of thousands from misery both 

 temporal and eternal — is in such an unnatural state of soul that it seems to 

 me that custom must have ' eaten up his understanding, and put stones into 

 his heart.' Remember, I pushed the dealer hard with some questions about 

 his nine respectable casks, which he could not answer, and which I defy him 

 to answer. Take care, reader, that you do not buy any one of the nine ! If 

 you do, you are answerable for all the guilt and mischief perpetrated by the 

 tenth, and the blood of those that perish by it is upon your head. Be not de- 

 ceived, God is not mocked,— quibbles, evasions, exceptions, and excuses, are 

 of no avail with him. He sees the very essence of things in ' their spirit and 

 their truth,' and he will require this blood at your hands ; except indeed he 

 absolve you' on account of your insanity. But then he knows how far the 

 insanity itself is guilt. Respectable members of society ! millions of England ! 

 how much have you to answer for if you abet or encourage this accursed 

 trade ! It is positively in your power, if you will unite as one man and for- 

 swear it for ever, to stamp it with disgrace, to bring it to shame, the buying, 

 the selling, and the using of it, and thus to drive it out of your country, and to 

 put an end for ever to all the crime and misery it occasions. You can, if you 

 will, positively bring such disgrace upon it that a man who is going to drink 

 a glass of spirits will feel just as he would if he were going to steal. He will 

 skulk into the dark to do it. Or, if it be daylight, he will look anxiously be- 

 hind and around him, to see if any body is looking at him- Public opinion 

 is able to effect all this to the uttermost; so utterly, and entirely, and help- 

 lessly do we think and feel according to the mode of thinking and feeling of 

 the day and generation in which we live. It is true public opinion is now 

 against us. But, if you will unite as one man, it is in your power to change 

 public opinion whenever you please. Nay, by acting right you will awaken 

 up a riy lit feeling in your own bosoms, which you cannot summon at the 

 mere bidding of the will. And a right feeling will arise in the bosoms of all, 

 and the delusion, and the insanity, and the thraldom and bondage of our un- 

 derstandings and feelings in this matter will be dispelled. Thus it will be 

 found that public opinion is not like the law of the Medes and Persians, that 

 cannot be changed, but that a union of all that is respectable in England can 

 turn the tide. Because custom and public opinion are now mad upon the 

 subject, it does not follow that they are never to come to their senses. And, 

 to encourage us in this noble effort, it should be remembered that, although 



