TASTING. 71 



leads directly to stupefaction; excess of stimulating 

 drink ends in stupefaction still more complete, but 

 it arrives at that conclusion through a delirium of 

 very strong, and, up to a certain point, of very de- 

 lightful excitement just in the same manner that 

 the excitement of eating wholesome food in mode- 

 rate quantity when we are hungry is very delightful- 

 The sottishness of the continually intoxicated, with 

 whom drunkenness has become so much a habit 

 that they absolutely cannot get drunk (for that, and 

 indeed any excess, may be carried so far as to de- 

 stroy its own effect, by deadening that part of the 

 system on which it acts), is next thing to an abso- 

 lute extinction of the observation of nature ; and 

 when the powers are absolutely gone in that way, 

 they are in most instances irrecoverably gone. 

 Occasional intoxication is also an occasional de- 

 struction, by means of which time is lost, and from 

 which the powers seldom recover with all their 

 former tone and activity. But still there is a point 

 even in the progress of that, up to which all is 

 wholesome and profitable ; and as every nation 

 under the sun which has discovered any thing at all 

 has discovered some drink or substance of a stimu- 

 lating nature, the temperate use of such stimulants 

 must not only be not improper, it must be natural 

 and necessary. Thus, in order to enjoy nature fully, 

 and crowd into the years of our time the greatest 

 amount of life, or, in other words, the greatest en- 

 joyment, we must not have a prejudice against any 

 thing, any more than a predilection for it beyond its 

 proper measure. There is some pleasure to be got 

 out of every thing, be it what it may; and thus, 

 though the place and the circumstance of our lives 

 limit us to only a few, we should be ready both in 

 knowledge and in aptness to enjoy any hew one 

 that comes in our way. Still, the tastes and the 

 other sensations connected with eating and drink- 

 ing are the most merely animal parts of our whole 



