550 



TEMPERAMENTS TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES 



ing, feeling and thinking of each person is perman- 

 ently affected. The differences of sex, race, nation, 

 foully, and individual organization, operate upon 

 the character of every individual from the moment 

 of his birth ; and the last mentioned is by no means 

 the least important. The ancients distinguished 

 four temperaments the choleric or bilious, the 

 phlegmatic, the melancholic, and the sanguineous, 

 which derived their names from the supposed ex- 

 cess of one or other of the principal fluids of the 

 human body bile (x*-*~), phlegm.black bile (pilau*, 

 black, and xx>i), and blood (san</ns). Modern 

 writers have added the athletic temperament a?id 

 the nervous temperament. The bilious or choleric 

 temperament is accompanied with great suscepti- 

 bility of feeling, quickness of perception, and vigour 

 of action, and therefore indicates an elevated state 

 of the organization: rapidity and strength, a lively 

 imagination, violent passions, quickness of decision, 

 combined with perseverance and inflexibility of pur- 

 pose, with a tendency to ambition, pride, and an- 

 ger, but also to magnanimity and generosity of 

 sentiment, characterize the bilious man. These 

 moral characteristics are combined with a form more 

 remarkable for firmness than grace, a dark or sallow 

 complexion, sparkling eyes, and great muscular 

 force. " These men," says an ingenious writer 

 (Am. Quarterly Rev. for March, 1829), " are urged 

 by a constant restlessness to action ; a habitual 

 sentiment of disquietude allows them no peace but 

 in the tumult of business; the hours of crowded 

 life are the only ones they value ; they are to be 

 found wherever hardiness of resolution, prompt deci- 

 sion, and permanence of enterprise, are required." 

 The phlegmatic, lymphatic, or cold-blooded tem- 

 perament is the reverse of that last described : with 

 little propensity to action, and little sensibility ; no 

 great bodily strength or dexterity ; rather a heavy 

 look ; the feelings calm ; the understanding clear in 

 a certain range, but never soaring into new regions, 

 or penetrating deeply beneath the mysteries of the 

 universe ; and a disposition to repose or to moderate 

 exertion, the phlegmatic man is free from excesses, 

 and his virtues and vices are stamped with medio- 

 crity. The sanguineous temperament indicates a 

 lively susceptibility, with little proneness to action ; 

 promptness, without perseverance; a ready fancy; 

 little depth of feeling, or thought ; changeable, but 

 not violent feelings and passions ; and a tendency 

 to voluptuousness, levity, fickleness of purpose, 

 and fondness of admiration. The sanguineous 

 are distinguished for beauty and grace, and the 

 whole organization is characterized by the vigour 

 and facility of its functions : they are the witty, 

 the elegant, the gay, the ornaments of society. 

 The melancholic temperament is characterized by 

 little susceptibility, but great energy of action, 

 reserve, firmness of purpose, perseverance, deep 

 reflection, constancy of feeling, and an inclination 

 to gloominess, to ascetic practices, and to misan- 

 thropy. The athletic temperament possesses, in 

 some degree, the qualities of the sanguineous ; but 

 it is distinguished by superior strength and size of 

 body, indicating the excess of the muscular force 

 over the sensitive. The athletic man has less 

 playfulness of mind, less activity of spirit, little 

 elevation of purpose or fixedness of character ; he 

 is good natured, but if excited, ferocious. The 

 nervous temperament admits of the most various 

 modifications ; it is characterized by the predomi- 

 nance of the sensitive part of the system, and the 

 powerful action of the nerve*. The mind is active 



and volatile, though not from fickleness, but from 

 the rapidity of its associations, the quickness of its 

 resolutions, and the readiness of its combinations. 

 The temperaments are rarely found unmi.xrci, 

 have described them ; but one or the other is usually 

 predominant. Each has its advantages and plea"- 

 sures, attended with some corresponding drawback. 

 See Kant's Anthropology, or Schulze's Anthrajiu- 

 li'i/ii, both in German. 



TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. The remark- 

 able success of these institutions in counteracting 

 a vice of great seductiveness, and of the most 

 ruinous tendency, demands for their history and 

 present condition a somewhat extended notice. 

 The mental excitement produced by the reception 

 of certain vegetable substances into the system is, 

 in its first stage, so agreeable, that we cannot be 

 surprised at finding some of them in use as far back, 

 and as extensively, as our accounts of private man- 

 ners reach. The fermented juice of fruits, as of 

 the apple and grape, the intoxicating property of 

 which latter is mentioned by Moses (Gen. ix. 21), 

 probably was the most ancient, and is now the 

 most common vehicle of the stimulating principle. 

 The later Asiatics have found it in preparations 

 from the poppy and the wild hemp, and the North 

 American Indians in tobacco. The ancient Ger- 

 mans, according to Tacitus's account (De Mor. 

 Germ., xxiii.), obtained an intoxicating drink from 

 wheat and barley ; but the art of brewing, as at 

 present practised, appears not to have been known 

 in England before the end of the fifteenth century. 

 Distillation, which furnishes far the most powerful 

 agents of this kind, was invented by the alchemists 

 in the course of their experiments in search of the 

 elixir of life. The first known distinct mention of 

 it (Encylopedie Methodique, articles Arts et Metiers, 

 Distillateur,Liquoriste), occurs in the thirteenth cen- 

 tury. Arnaud de Villeneuve, a chemist and physi- 

 cian, who died about the year 1300, writes : " \Vho 

 would believe that one can draw from wine, by 

 chemical process, that which has not the colour of 

 wine, nor the ordinary effects of wine? This water 

 of wine is called by some the water of life (can de 

 vie, brandy) ; and it well deserves the name, since 

 it is truly a water of immortality. Already its 

 virtues begin to be known. It prolongs one's life ; 

 it dissipates superfluous and vicious humours ; it re- 

 vives the heart, and perpetuates youth." Towards 

 the end of the sixteenth century, the use of dis- 

 tilled spirits was introduced into England. Camden 

 mentions them as having been adopted, in 1581, 

 into the diet of the English soldiers in their cam. 

 paigns in the Netherlands. 



Compared with the population, the quantity of in- 

 toxicating liquors consumed now is much less than 

 it was a hundred years ago ; and the number of places 

 for the sale of such liquors has equally decreased. 

 On referring to the evidence taken before the Select 

 Committee for Inquiry into Drunkenness, we find 

 our impressions on these point* substantiated by 

 the statements of those witnesses who appear to 

 possess the largest amount of practical knowledge 

 on the subject. We avail ourselves of the speech 

 of lord Cholmondeley, as given in the ' Parliamen- 

 tary History,' vol. xii. p. 1213, to furnish a short 

 account of the various liquor acts previously to 

 1743, with reference to the legislative measures 

 taken with a view of placing a check on the evil of 

 drunkenness. 



Lord Cholmondeley, after dwelling on the ineffi 

 cacy of direct legislation on the subject, and 



