THE MOKAL STATUS OP ALCOHOL. 377 



Monday since ; who has done his work creditably in the work- 

 shop and at home ; whose progeny (ample) reflect from their 

 rosy chuhby cheeks the warm glow of health so radiant upon 

 the features of their total-abstaining sire. 



Total abstainers, mv friends ! the case fails. It is wholly 



7 J v 



wide of the mark to seek illustrations in the executive or non- 

 creative avocations of life. Know ye not that pearls never 

 come in healthy oysters ? Know ye not they are always the 

 product of disease ? It is quite possible to admit that total 

 abstinence from alcohol may be most compatible with the 

 maintenance of a body in the highest condition of physical 

 health, without this concession involving, as a sequence, that 

 the higher originative or creative efforts of the brain of man 

 can be most effectively brought into operation without the 

 stimulus of alcohol. A man might make very good shoes on 

 toast-and-water ; very good cradles, carriages, coats coffins. 

 He might be a very good short -hand writer, law copyist, 

 a very good picture copyist, for aught I know ; perhaps a 

 copyist in any other sense. There have been such ; there are 

 such, genuine total abstainers ; mediocrities all. 



Useless wholly is it to point to such cases by way of 

 attempting to show that total alcoholic abstinence would con- 

 duce to the benefit of all workers. Nobody is called upon 

 at least by me to accede to the proposition that no origi- 

 nator of thoughts, as distinguished from the mere copvist of 

 thoughts, can by any chance be a total alcoholic abstainer. 

 Curiosities of existence will never cease. Nature is wayward 

 in the richness of her treasure-casket; she often surprises 

 with anomalies. You and I, friend, are looking at things in 

 the concrete; we take heed of grand resultants; we elimi- 

 nate the confusion of exceptions. We do not say that Shake- 

 speare could not have been what he was, had he lived on toast- 

 and-water ; or (our case not needing so low a dietary as that) 

 had he totally abstained from good Rhine wine and generous 

 sack. What you and I want to know is, whether anybody, 



