372 THE MORAL STATUS OF ALCOHOL. 



you not float away upon the flood of speculation, and drift to 

 regions of thought, the nature of which a writer dares not 

 indicate, for fear of seeming impiety ? 



If man be made for the world, then, in order to benefit 

 the world, mankind must act, must be up and doing. By 

 the implied tenure of our existence, we are bound, each of us, 

 to gird-on our armour; to fortify the principle of vitality 

 within us as best we may ; and rush into the turmoil of the 

 battle of life, impelled by the fixed resolve of doing something. 

 Individually, it is all a chance whether any one of us comes 

 out of that strife maimed or scathless ; or whether, stricken 

 down upon the field, any one of us may perish, to return no 

 more. 



It may have been needed and preordained, on behalf of 

 the world for which we were created, that you and I, neigh- 

 bour, should be amongst the strewn and blighted blossoms, 

 destined to wither on behalf of the tree. It behoves us all to 

 be up and doing ; even though in the activity there be danger 

 to our individual selves. Were it possible to lock the mem- 

 bers of a family in whom we take a kindly interest up within 

 four walls feeding them, clothing them, altogether isolating 

 them from the world without ; thereby might we avert some 

 issues on the battle-field of life. Held prisoners thus, the 

 members of our chosen family would husband their vital 

 forces by exercising the strictest economy: they would almost 

 perforce die natural deaths. 



If committed to the world, this one might have been 

 hanged, that one drowned, the other one poisoned or blown- 

 tip by gunpowder. Better despite such instances of violent 

 death that the family should have mingled in the world; 

 worked on behalf of it; fought its battles. This way of 

 viewing the mutual relations of mankind and the world ; this 

 train of reasoning, whereby action, activity, is shown to be a 

 duty, suggests a most important question. Is it not a plain 

 corollary of an appreciation of this duty for each individual 



