MARRIAGE AND DRUNKENNESS. 129 



is not to be treated lightly. An attribute so Christ- 

 like is not to be rudely pushed aside by cold, calculat- 

 ing reason, without a word of sympathy. In some few 

 cases, doubtless, men have been snatched as brands 

 from the burning by noble women who have risked 

 all in the hazard, and such wife-heroes should stand in 

 the forefront of the ranks of Nature's nobility. Yet 

 I would point out that the attempt so rarely ends in 

 salvation, and so frequently in complete failure and 

 despair, that such an experiment can in no case be 

 advised; and further, that while one might not feel 

 justified in interfering with attempts at the reclama- 

 tion of the erring, if only the fate of the volunteer 

 were at stake, he feels it his duty to speak when he 

 remembers the children whose fate is also staked upon 

 the hazard. It may be argued that a person has a 

 right to risk happiness, even life itself, in the hope 

 that some other may be benefited, but it cannot be 

 said that a person should have legal or moral right to 

 jeopardise the future of a whole family, to satisfy any 

 instinct, however noble. 



