MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND [PART II. 



'"fii '., ... 



him out with seraphic wings; or like Saint 



Francis, they may give him horns and tail : 



but, I say that the devil, who is the strongest 



tempter, and who produces the most mischief 



in the world, approaches us in the shape of 



liquid, not melted brimstone, but wine, gin, 



brandy, rum, and whiskey. One comfort is, 



however, that this devil, of whose existence 



we can have no doubt, who is visible and even 



tangible, we can, if we will, without the aid 



of priests, or, rather, in spite of them, easily 



and safely set at defiance. There are many 



wrong things which men do against the general 



and natural bent of their minds. Fraud, theft, 



and even murder, are frequently, and most 



frequently, the offspring of want. In these 



cases, it is a choice of evils ; crime or hunger. 



But, drinking to excess is a man's own act; 



an evil deliberately sought after; an act of 



violence committed against reason and against 



nature ; and that, too, without the smallest 



temptation, except from that vicious appetite, 



which he himself has voluntarily created. 



368. You, my dear Sir, stand in need of 

 no such lectures as this, and the same is, I 

 hope, the case with the far greater part of my 

 readers ; but, if it tend, in the smallest degree, 

 to check the fearful growth of this tree of 



