276 ^ MORAL INFLUENCE. 



increases the incentive and capacity for work, enabling 

 those who use it in bounds to remain long without food 

 or sleep, endure unusual fatigue, and preserve their cheer- 

 fulness and composure, coffee-drinkers as a rule being 

 generally cheerful, active and persevering. The truth 

 is that coffee, if of a pure kind and properly prepared, 

 is about the pleasantest and most innocuous stimu- 

 lant that can be resorted to, particularly after a long 

 worry or severe drain on the emotional or intellectual 

 forces. So that if it could be but made to take the place 

 of absinthe, champagne and other such beverages the 

 coming race would be all the better intellectually and 

 physically for it. Habitual coffee-drinkers generally 

 enjoy good health, some of the longest-lived people 

 have used it from their earliest infancy without apparent 

 injury or depressing reaction, such as is invariably 

 produced by alcoholic stimulants. The physiological 

 action of coffee is directed chiefly to the nervous 

 system, producing a warm, cordial feeling in the 

 stomach, which is quickly followed by a well-diffused 

 and agreeable nervous excitement extending itself to the 

 cerebral functions, giving rise to increased vigor to the 

 imagination and intellect without causing any subsequent 

 stupor or confusion of ideas, such as are so characteristic 

 of all other narcotics. It produces contentment of mind, 

 allays hunger, mental and bodily weariness, increases the 

 capacity for work, makes man forget his troubles and 

 anxieties, enabling those who use it judiciously to endure 

 unusual fatigue and remain a long time without food or 

 sleep, as well as to preserve their temper and cheerful- 

 ness. 



The influence which the introduction of coffee has 

 exercised on modern morals is on account of its peculiar 

 character, much easier to understand than to prove. We 



