TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 207 



in a wildeaness like this, from the barrenness of all around, 

 receives a zest, which nothing in civilized society can realize, 

 and ' voila Vexemple* " 



Lighted by a peasant with a bog-deal torch, that emitted 

 more light than forty candles together, the old man approached 

 us with his tray. Coffee taken in the open air, " in darkness 

 palpable," into which the powerful blaze of the torch which 

 our bare-legged attendant held could but feebly penetrate, 

 associated with the place and company, made an impression on 

 my fancy that will not be readily obliterated. 



" Next to modern fanaticism, nothing stirs my choler more/' 

 said my kinsman, " than that silly bubble, yclept the Temperance 

 Society, To prevent men from occasionally indulging, no 

 matter what their grade in life may be, is perfectly Utopian. 

 The more you inhibit what the world calls pleasure, the more 

 you urge mankind to the pursuit. Hence, in water-drinking, 

 more as in religion, there is the grossest hypocrisy prac- 

 tised; and I would as soon trust a denouncer of wine 

 with the key of my cellar, as allow my cat to have the entree 

 of the dairy. Then, upon the score that health and longevity 

 are interrupted by even a moderate attachment to the bottle, I 

 deny the position altogether ; and for my proof I would point 

 out the group within. The otter-killer says that he is eighty 

 we at the Lodge, from certain data, know him to be at 

 least five years more ; his life has been one of much severity, 

 with constant exposure to heat and cold : and he has, as he 

 admits, been always a free drinker. The Colonel, for thirty 

 years, has been attached to the most dissipated regiments in 

 the service, and excepting that he suffered from gout, which is 

 hereditary in his family, and rheumatism occasioned by a neg- 

 lected wound, where is there a more vigorous sexagenarian ? 

 But the Priest is probably the best example of them all. Ex- 

 posed to all the annoyances of his profession, brought constantly 

 within the sphere of contagion, called out of bed at midnight, 

 and obliged to brave weather, when, as it has been happily ex- 

 pressed, a man would not reject an enemy's dog, he exercises 

 hospitality freely ; and is there a panado-rnaker among the 

 whole water- drinking gang who could rough it with him for a 

 fortnight ? But hark ! he pitches that manly and melodious 

 voice he strikes up poor Burns* inimitable lyric, ' Then are 

 we met.' That matchless song was surely written for such a 

 voice and such a company !" 



