MORAL INFLUENCE. 277 



know that the discovery of gunpowder changed the entire 

 art of war from the equipment of the individual soldier to the 

 alignment of an entire army, and thus its influence became 

 a palpable fact. But the changes in modern life effected 

 by the introduction of coffee belong to the general and 

 concealed springs of life ; to its motives, rather than to 

 any circumscribed set of utterances regarding its facts, 

 and an influence of this nature requires the application 

 of a peculiar instrument in order to in a measure calculate 

 or even demonstrate it. A doctor may be perfectly correct 

 in ascribing a fever to certain atmospheric conditions, 

 but without thermometer, barometer or microscope, he 

 can prove absolutely nothing. We may be perfectly 

 certain then that the introduction of coffee has altered the 

 whole moral atmosphere in which we move, but without 

 statistics we are unable to demonstrate the legitimacy or 

 correctness of the assumption, and statistics is a scientific 

 instrument of much later date than the introduction of 

 coffee. 



Observations, however, which in some degree may 

 be of some service in arriving at exact figures, are 

 not altogether wanting. It cannot be contended that 

 life has become more just and honest, which would be 

 the legitimate result of a better education, but it is certain 

 that it has become gentler, more uniform and pacific, 

 two results which essentially depend on food and occu- 

 pation. Nor can it be denied that it is the increasing 

 demands of reason which awe, superstition, bigotry and 

 narrow fanaticism out of our educational system, and not 

 this system which spontaneously has endeavored to 

 make everything else subservient to reason, and what 

 thus is dimly or vaguely indicated by a general view of 

 life, often becomes more striking in many individual 

 instances. It is a hazardous, but nevertheless felicitous 



