:J80 THE MORAL STATUS OF ALCOHOL. 



is general. Would it have arisen without some strong foun- 

 dation? and having arisen, is it not adverse to any strong 

 faith in the temperance virtues imputed to cold water ? 



' Just at this moment a thought dawns ; it makes me feel 

 angry with teetotallers makes me contemptuous. Where- 

 fore do they not remember that sins come from the heart, 

 the soul of man, which we know is desperately wicked ? Be- 

 ginning in inmost thoughts, sins expand outwards, and end 

 in the very act, the doing. What mean these notices about 

 " Temperance champagne" that I see so often ? Temperance 

 champagne, forsooth ! Sinners, backsliders, pharisees, pre- 

 varicators ! Emancipated from bondage, as you pretend, how 

 shameful is this hankering after Egyptian flesh-pots, meta- 

 phorically to speak ! 



How dare you even think about champagne ? Will you 

 audaciously tell me that those long-necked similitudes of Ay, 

 Veuve Cliquot, or Epernay can be popped off under the very 

 noses of teetotallers without the peril to virtue? Curiosity, 

 I say, may be fatal (as it often has been fatal) to the virtue 

 of man or w^oman. For shame's sake, let us hear no more 

 about " Temperance champagne !" Of all vices, hypocrisy is 

 the worst : of all hypocrisies, that implied in just saving 

 the mark driving close up to a forbidden line, and taking 

 credit to oneself for not transgressing the line is about the 

 meanest.' 



Again I .say, these are the opinions of a man who seems 

 to hold very extreme views. Temperate he may be, in the 

 matter of alcoholic liquors, but not in the matter of language. 

 He goes at the teetotal people furiously, with a sort of moral 

 sledge-hammer, as if they had committed some terrible sin. 



C x onviction is never won by violence like this. To my 

 appreciation, it would have been extremely inconsistent had 

 total abstainers gained fame on behalf of their target shoot- 

 ing and smart manoeuvring. Confessedly, in time of peace, 

 soldiering is heavy work ; a vast deal of physical energy must 



