The Coming Man Will Drink Wine, etc. 



247 



COMMON SENSE vs. PEOHIBITORY LAWS; OR, THE COMING 

 MAN WILL DRINK WINE.— III. 



The other day, as I was pinching 

 my vinos, a most tedious and lone- 

 some work, as all vineyardists well 

 know, my mind was busy at work, as 

 a sound mind should always be, think- 

 ing of the many conflicting opinions 

 held by mankind, and attempting to 

 set reasons therefor; from fancy to 

 fancy, from thought to thought, it 

 finally reverted to the subject of tem- 

 perance, as advanced now-a-days, a 

 most natural thought, I hear 3'ou saj', 

 for a grape grower — it struck me that 

 in taking the pen, as I have done, to 

 help you on and advance my indivi- 

 dual convictions, whilst the duties of 

 a vinej'ard are more familiar to me — 

 it might turn out that after all I had 

 done nothing but catch a wolf by the 

 ears — " Auribus tenes lupum," as the 

 Latins have said before me, and I 

 felt uneasy I must confess ; on the 

 spur of the moment, had my eyes 

 caught sight of a mouse-hole I would 

 have gone straight for it, to hide my 

 presumptuous head, for such it must 

 be and no mistake. How I came to 

 forget that in that jewel among cities, 

 set near the centre of the country 

 for Capital piirposea, I am told — j-ou 

 must be surrounded by talented wri- 

 ters, who could, if they chose to 

 answer, bring argument upon argu- 

 ments, pile Pelion upon Ossa, and 

 thus crush to atoms my daring temer- 

 ity, is more than I can explain ; still it 

 will not do to stand abashed, though 

 I may be wrong in my convictions ; 

 though my knowledge and experience 

 may be at fault, I have no proofs that 



it is really so, until something hag' 

 been brought forward more conclu- 

 sive than what I have seen to this day. 

 Let us again strike at the bushel. 



Whilst pinching the aforesaid vines, 

 a case in point, ludicrous in itself, 

 but well illustrating the inconsistency 

 and blindness of the misguided advo- 

 cates of total abstinence, recurred to 

 my mind. It happened lately in one 

 of the fashionable churches out East — 

 wonder if Christ ever susj)ected fash- 

 ionable churches ! I confess I was 

 greatly amused to see how "we the 

 saints" feel anxious and perplexed 

 for the salvation ot sinners that do 

 not belong to their new school of total 

 abstinence Christianity*. One of these 

 charitable soiils, who year!}- hand- 

 someh' pay their way to heaven, to 

 the utmost satisfaction of those who 

 pocket the money, went so far in his 

 simplicity as to avow in the meeting 

 that the question : was Charles Dick- 

 ens a Christian man ? troubled his 

 mind, as he could not answer it satis- 

 factorily to meet his peculiar (total 

 abstinence probably ! ) views, poor 

 soul ! The grand high priest of the 

 concern, who, I must acknowledge, is 

 silently, quietly but safely coming 

 over — as he grows old and wiser, 

 which can not be said of every man — 

 to that tolerant, patient, unbigoted, 

 rational religion towards which all 

 men of sound mind and common sense 

 necessarily and inevitably gravitate, 

 gave his reasons for believing him to 

 have been a christian, " nothing in his 

 writings being found that might tend 



