No. 10. 



Temperance. 



323 



if they do not. We often hear of drunkards 

 perishing' in cold weather with their botile 

 by their side : but where no visible intoxica- 

 tion occurs, the debilitating effect of this sti- 

 mulus is frequently exhibited. In the winter 

 of 1796, durincj a severely cold night, a vessel 

 with seven persons on board was wrecked 

 near the coast of Massachusetts. Five of 

 the company concluded to try swimming to 

 shore. Four of the five prepared themselves 

 by drinking freely of spirits, the other drank 

 none. The man who drank none, and three 

 of the others, reached the shore ; and endea- 

 voured to make their way, through a deep 

 snow, to a distant light. The total abstinence 

 man effected his object, and his life was saved, 

 but the rest perished by the way. 



If ardent spirits diminish the capacity for 

 enduring cold, we may perhaps infer that 

 they increase the power of sustaining heat; 

 and are therefore salutary to the labourer in 

 the harvest field. This inference, however, 

 is not sound. Ardent spirits, when taken into 

 the stomach, produce a transient excitement, 

 which leaves the system with less than its 

 former excitability. The man therefore pe- 

 rishes with cold, not because the alcohol had 

 carried off a part of his natural warmth, 

 though it certainly has that effect, but be- 

 cause it had diminished the power of produc- 

 ing a necessary supply. It had impaired his 

 vital energies, and left him more obnoxious 

 to the benumbing influence of cold. If alco- 

 hol increases the capacity to endure the heat 

 and toil of harvest, it must do so while the 

 excitement continues, or after it has passed 

 off. While the excitement continues, the 

 warmth is increased ; and when it has passed 

 off, the body is left weaker than before. If 

 the stimulus is so frequently repeated as to 

 keep up the excitement, it is like going near- 

 er the fire to escape from the inconvenience 

 of heat; besides, by such course the strength 

 is eventually impaired. 



From these premises we are fully author- 

 ized to conclude, that intoxicating liquor of 

 any kind is not advantageous in performing 

 the labours of harvest; and that the benefit, 

 so far as there is any benefit, from the use 

 of the weaker liquors, arises, not from the 

 alcohol they contain, but from the other in- 

 gredients. If, then, the harvest man is pro- 

 perly supplied with wholesome drink, into 

 which no alcohol enters, he has all the ad- 

 vantages wiiich the alcoholic liquors afford, 

 and escapes the evils which those liquids are 

 in danger of introducing. 



This, we may observe, is not an idle theory, 

 but is fully supported by experience. It has 

 been found that the labours of harvest are 

 actually performed in a better manner with- 

 out the use of alcoholic drink, than with it. 

 The labourers, after performing a given q^uun- 



tity of work, sustained by unintoxicating be- 

 verage, find themselves less exhausted than 

 when supplied with alcoholic stimulants. 



If now we could accord to intoxicating li- 

 quor, used in moderation, the negative credit 

 of doing no injury, it might still be worthy 

 of inquiry whether the practice of moderate 

 drinking, even if we could be sure it would 

 never run into beastly excess, can be justi- 

 fied. As it appears, from experience and 

 the nature of the case, that such liquors do 

 not promote the labourer's health or strength 

 in time of harvest, it is obvious that moderate 

 drinking is as justifiable at other times of the 

 year as in time of harvest. Let us then ad- 

 vert to the expense of moderate drinking. 

 Suppose two men, A and B, begin the world 

 without capital at the age of twenty ; that the 

 profits of their business and their ordinary 

 expenses are the same, except that A drinks 

 moderately, spending each day tv^elve and a 

 half cents for liquor, and B goes upon the 

 plan of total abstinence. Consequently B, 

 at the end of the first year, has SB45.62| more 

 than A. B has of course an annuity of 

 •1^45.62^, which A has not. Now there are 

 so many ways in which money may be im- 

 proved, that we may fairly reckon this annu- 

 ity as accumulating at 6 per cent, compound 

 interest. These men going on in this way, 

 A, keeping to his moderate plan of spending 

 no more than 12J cents a day, until they at- 

 tain the age of seventy, — it is easily shown 

 that B's annuity amounts to the decent sum 

 of 813,247. If, then, A has just made out to 

 keep clear of debt, B has an estate, the in- 

 come of which may probably support them 

 both. If we suppose the sum expended for 

 liquor to be only G^ cents a day, the sum 

 saved by total abstinence appears, from this 

 calculation, to be !§<6623. To a man of se- 

 venty, the possession of this sum would be 

 more comfortable than the recollection that 

 he had swallowed six and a quarter cents' 

 worth of liquor every day for fifty years. 

 We thus perceive, that of two men with 

 equal industry, and equal opportunities, one 

 may be placed in easy circumstances, and 

 the other be very poor, for no other reason 

 than that one drinks moderately, and the 

 other is entirely abstemious. 



There are many who make little or no use 

 of the ardent liquors, such as rum, gin, bran- 

 dy, &c., who suppose that the malt liquors 

 may be used to advantage, and that they con- 

 tain a considerable portion of nourishment. 

 I am ready to admit that they contain some 

 nutritious matter : but the economy of deriv- 

 ing nourishment from such liquors is forcibly 

 illustrated by the facts exhibited in a lecture 

 delivered at Birmingham, England, about two 

 years ago. The lecturer showed that a chy- 

 mical analysis gave from a gallon of ale, 



