PRACTICAL MORALITY. 



paration, or to make eating the chief source of 



r happiness, is a thing most unworthy of us. 



icre is scarcely any vice so much despised as 

 that of gluttony. Its objects are low and gross, 

 and he who delights in it must needs become 

 despicable. 



If it is bad to eat too much or too nicely, we 

 may err still more in drinking. Man has dis- 

 covered how to make various liquors as wine, 

 brandy, whisky, gin, and ale of which no one 

 can take a large quantity without great hurt to 

 himself, and which, even in the most moderate 

 quantities, are not perhaps to be taken without 

 some degree of injury. In all of these fluids there 

 is an ingredient called spirit, or alcohol, which has 

 the effect, when a large quantity is taken, of excit- 

 ing and intoxicating us, so that we lose our reason, 

 and become fit to act like madmen. Under the 

 influence of this spirit, men do the most outrag- 

 eous actions, nay, sometimes commit murder ; 

 and even when they take only a little, their talk 

 is apt to become foolish, and they often say what 

 they afterwards bitterly repent of. All young per- 

 sons should be greatly on their guard against 

 tasting spirituous liquors, for taking a little leads 

 to taking more, and that to taking more still, and 

 in that way ultimately a bad habit is acquired. 

 Any one who is greatly given to drinking these 

 liquors is called a drunkard, or a sot Such a 

 man, supposing that he avoids committing any 

 very wicked action in his drunken moments, 

 nevertheless is almost sure to suffer from his in- 

 temperance. He cannot work so steadily, or to 

 such good purpose, as a sober man. No one can 

 depend upon his executing the duties he under- 

 takes. He therefore ceases to be employed, and 

 becomes poor. The expense of the liquor he 

 drinks adds to his poverty. His family, reduced 

 to misery by his intemperate habits, cannot love 

 or honour him. His home becomes a scene of 

 wretchedness, and disease and penury cut short 

 his days. 



There are many other things in which temper- 

 ance is to be observed, or intemperance avoided, 

 besides eating and drinking. Excessive labour of 

 body or mind is as much an act of intemperance, 

 as to make one's self dull and stupid by taking too 

 much food, or irrational and giddy by taking too 

 much spirits. But there is a wide difference in 

 the degree of immorality in the kinds of excess. 

 An intemperance in study, which brings untimely 

 death in some instances, is not harshly condemned 

 as an immoral transgression though it certainly 

 is such for the motive which leads to this in- 

 temperance is regarded as an honourable one. 

 The loss of health and character, from abusing 

 the duty of taking nourishment, is universally con- 

 demned, because the motive and the acts done in 

 obedience to its impulse are irrational and dis- 

 graceful. Indeed, there is no duty which we are 

 called on to discharge in which there is not room 

 for the exercise of this virtue. It is nature's 

 ' golden mean.' Shakspeare saw need for it even 

 in the fervours of dramatic speech. Hamlet says 

 to the players : ' In the very torrent, tempest, and 

 (as I may say) the whirlwind of passion, you must 

 acquire and beget a temperance that may give it 

 smoothness.' 



Industry. 



The Almighty Creator has made the earth pro- 

 ductive of many things necessary for our subsist- 



ence and comfort, but scarcely any of these things 

 are to be had in sufficient quantities, or are in a 

 state fit for use, without human labour. Grain 

 must be sown and reaped ; metals must be dug 

 from the ground, and fabricated into utensils; 

 flax, wool, and cotton must be spun and woven. 

 From these and the like operations arises the 

 wealth both of individuals and of nations. That 

 any one, therefore, may be entitled to have food, 

 or clothing, or any useful thing he desires, he must 

 bear his share in the labours of society, unless he 

 be so weak in body or mind as to be unfit for work, 

 or already have so much wealth, of his own or 

 another's getting, as to require no more. 



When a people do not work, but live only on 

 fruits or wild animals, they are said to be in a 

 savage condition. Such are the American Indians, 

 the Kaffirs, and the aborigines of Australia. 

 Their style of living is very miserable ; they have 

 no comfortable food or clothing ; and having no 

 store against times of scarcity, they often perish 

 in great numbers from hunger. A savage country 

 rarely supports more than one person for every 

 square mile. 



When a people are industrious, they live in a 

 much better style. As they rear and tend cattle 

 and sheep, sow and reap corn, build dwellings for 

 themselves, and bring home the productions of 

 other countries in ships, they enjoy many com- 

 forts which the savage never tastes. Generally, a 

 people are well or ill off exactly in proportion to 

 their industry. The Germans, Swiss, French, 

 Dutch, and British are the most industrious of all 

 nations ; hence their general condition is the best" 

 In their countries, there are from one hundred to 

 three hundred persons for every square mile. We 

 thus see that in a country where there is much 

 industry there are far more people, and these far 

 happier, than in one where there is no industry. 



The same rule holds respecting individuals. He 

 who does not work, or in some way serve his 

 fellow-creatures, is left to want ; but he who works, 

 obtains the means of living in greater or less com- 

 fort Generally, according as men are diligent 

 and honest, or the reverse, just so do they prosper 

 in their callings. While God has appointed all 

 good things to be attainable only through labour, 

 he has also appointed that labour should in itself 

 be useful and agreeable to man. We cannot be 

 healthy, we cannot be happy, unless we have some 

 occupation for our hands and minds. On the 

 other hand, we should not labour too hard or too 

 diligently, for then we should exhaust the powers 

 of our bodies, and incur diseases which are even 

 worse than the consequences of idleness. To be 

 actively employed for ten hours every day (Sun- 

 days being excepted), is generally thought to be as 

 much as is consistent with health. 



Health. 



Although a large amount of human disease and 

 mortality is directly attributable to habits of in- 

 temperance, a far larger amount is traceable to 

 the neglect of those sanitary precautions which 

 experience has shewn to be indispensable for the 

 proper maintenance of health. Health is the 

 condition of the body when every organ or part of 

 it is sound, and performs without difficulty the 

 functions or duties assigned to it. If the stomach 

 and bowels have all their natural strength, and act 

 properly upon the food ; if the heart and its vessels 



