THE TEMPERAMENT OF THE DRUNKARD 291 



his own emotions. Is he so miserable as to be afflicted by this 

 intense and tormenting desire ? Is he saved from that which will 

 wreck home and happiness and life only by an effort as tremendous 

 as and more sustained than that which keeps the sailorjfrom draining 

 his last drops of water ? Or is it a fact that his desires for deep 

 indulgence are very faint as faint as the everyday desire of a 

 landsman for water, so faint or non-existent that he is hardly, if 

 at all, conscious of them ? What of the people he knows best, his 

 own relatives and intimate friends ? Are the majority of them 

 deeply tempted ? Has he any valid reason for supposing that the 

 lady whom he meets at dinner, and who sips her glass of wine in 

 such seeming contentment, is earnestly desirous of draining the 

 decanter ? It is sufficient merely to ask the question to demon- 

 strate its absurdity. 



484. For the sake of comparison, it may be worth* while to 

 describe my own feelings at the present moment. If a glass of 

 beer were before me, I should feel no inclination for it, though I 

 am capable of enjoying beer when thirsty. If a glass of some 

 sweet wine were here, I should enjoy perhaps half a glass, just as I 

 should enjoy a morsel of chocolate. When I was younger and my 

 delight in sweets greater, I should have liked more. A glass of 

 whisky would awaken only repulsion. When sleepless or tired or 

 when with friends I have often found it pleasant. I find, however, 

 that even a small amount affects me disagreeably some hours later, 

 and therefore as a rule I take none. I am not conscious at any 

 time of having exercised any self-control worth mentioning. I 

 dare say many people will doubt the truth of this introspection 

 especially abstainers who have had no experience, and people 

 to whom even a glass of methylated spirits is a temptation. 

 But I think a great many others will find a parallel in their own 

 experience. 



485. Plainly, then, as in the case of tobacco, a lifelong experi- 

 ence of alcohol endows some men with only weak and easily 

 satisfied desires, whereas a much shorter experience awakens in 

 others a keen longing which is satisfied with nothing short of deep 

 indulgence, or is resisted only at the cost of acute suffering. 

 Plainly again, not only does alcohol awaken deeper desires in some 

 men than in others, but it awakens them more quickly. Self- 

 control, therefore, though a factor of great importance, is not the 

 only or even the main factor in the causation of sobriety. It is 

 argued sometimes that men are temperate or the reverse because 

 those of the former class have, from the beginning and always, 



