230 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



drinking is considered necessary as a matter of pro- 

 priety. Along with wine are taken a great variety of 

 highly seasoned foods, spices, and condiments in pro- 

 fusion, with rich meats and all sorts of delicacies, rich 

 desserts, etc., which can hardly be considered much 

 less harmful than stimulants of a more generally rec- 

 ognized character. 



These indulgences excite that part of the system 

 which generally needs restraint rather than stimula- 

 tion. A participant, an ex-governor, recently described 

 to us a grand political dinner given in honor of a noted 

 American citizen, which began at 5 p. m. and continued 

 until nearly midnight, continuous courses of food, 

 wines, etc., being served for nearly six hours. Similar 

 scenes have been enacted in a score of our large cities 

 for the same ostensible purpose. Knowing that public 

 men are addicted to such gormandizing on numerous 

 occasions, we do not wonder that so many of them are 

 men of loose morals. 



The Influence of Luxury.— The tendency of lux- 

 ury is toward demoralization. Eome never became dis- 

 sipated and corrupt until her citizens became wealthy, 

 and adopted luxurious modes of living. Nothing is 

 more conducive to sound morals than full occupation 

 of the mind with useful labor. Fashionable idleness 

 is a foe to virtue. The young man or the young woman 

 who wastes the precious hours of life in listless dream- 

 ing, or in that sort of senseless twaddle which forms 

 the bulk of the conversation in some circles, is in very 

 great danger of demoralization. Many of the usages and 

 customs of fashionable society seem to open the door 

 to vice, and to insidiously, and at first unconsciously, 

 lead the young and inexperienced away from the paths 

 of purity and virtue. There is good evidence that the 



