142 Swedish Turnips. [Partll. 



of a Grammar and have sent twenty Registers to Eng- 

 land, besides writing letters amounting to a reasonable 

 volume in bulk ; the whole of which has made an ave- 

 rage of nine par/es of common print a day, Sundays 

 included. And, besides this, I have been twelve days 

 from home, on business, and about^^ue on visits. Now, 

 whatever may have been the quality of the writings ; 

 whether they demanded mindor not, is no matter : they 

 demanded time for the fingers to move in, and yet, I 

 have not written a hundred pages by candle-light. \ 

 man knows not what he can do 'till he tries. But, then, 

 mind, I have always been up with the cocks and hens ; 

 and I have drunk "nothing but milk and water. It is a 

 saying, that " icine inspires icit ;" and that " in wine 

 '■'■ there is truth." These sayings are the apologies of 

 drinkers. Every thing that produces intoxication, 

 though in but the slightest degree, is injurious to the 

 mind ; whether it be such to the body or not, is a matter 

 of far less consequence. My Letter to Mr. Tierney, 

 on the state of the Paper-Money, has, I find, produced 

 a great and general impression in England. The sub- 

 ject was of great importance, and the treating it in- 

 volved much of that sort of reasoning which is the most 

 difficult of execution. That Letter, consisting of thirty- 

 two full pages of print, 1 wrote in one day, and that, 

 too, on the 11th of July, the hottest day in the year. 

 But, I never could have done this, if I had been guz- 

 zling wine, or grog, or beer, or cider all the day. 1 

 hope the reader will excuse this digression ; and, for 

 my own part, I think nothing of the charge of egotism, 

 if, by indulging in. it, I produce a proof of the excel- 

 lent effects of sobriety. It is not drunkenness that I 

 cry out against : that is beastly, and beneath my notice. 

 It is drinking ; for a man may be a great drinker, and 

 yet no drunkard. He may accustom himself to swal- 

 low, 'till his belly is a sort of tub. The Spaniards, 

 who are a very sober people, call such a man " a uine 

 " bag,'' it being the custom in that country to put wine 

 into bags, made of skins or hides. And indeed, wine 

 bag or grog bag or beer bag is the suitable appellation, 

 231. To return to the Swedish Turnips, it was im- 

 possible for me to attend to them in person at all; for, 



