In Peace 



ment which leads to the first steps in 

 drunkenness. The taste once estab- 

 lished takes care of itself. In earlier 

 times, when the nature of alcohol was 

 unknown and total abstinence was un- 

 dreamed of, it was the strong, the 

 boisterous, the energetic, the apostle of 

 "the strenuous life," who carried all 

 these things to excess. The wassail 

 bowl, the bumper of ale, the flagon of 

 wine, all these were the attribute of 

 the strong. We cannot say that those 

 who sank in alcoholism thereby illus- 

 trated the survival of the fittest. Who 

 can say that, as the Latin races became 

 temperate, they did not also become 

 docile and weak ? In other words, con- 

 sidering the influence of alcohol alone, 

 unchecked by an educated conscience, 

 we must admit that it is the strong and 

 vigorous, not the weak and perverted, 

 that are destroyed by it. At the best, 

 we can only say that alcoholic selection 



39 



