60 ARTIFICIAL STIMULUS. 



must soon fall from their giddy height, and have 

 themselves to blame forall the melancholy and mop- 

 ing idiocy which consequently ensue. Every arti- 

 ficial stimulus whether in mind or body, is followed 

 by a periodical lowness causing in spiritual things, 

 the gloom of despair, and in bodily, a wretchedness 

 which can find no relief but by the exciting drug, 

 which, on every fresh application, adds fuel to the 

 flame it has already kindled. There is no misery 

 like this to be a self-destroyer, and yet to shrink 

 from the approaching catastrophe ; and the more, 

 it is feared, to hasten it the more. And this is a 

 state of being into which many are as unwittingly 

 drawn as a ship when it first touches the noiseless 

 edge of a vortex. On the decay of the digestive 

 powers, through the want of proper exercise, it 

 seems reasonable and harmless to call in the aid of 

 a dram ; but the law is violated by that decision, 

 and all future miseries are but the result and the 

 punishment of that first violation. Let it be a 

 fixed thing that temperance, air, exercise, with 

 diversity of attention, are essential to a healthful 

 and useful existence. The law holds on its even 

 tenor, regular as the sun, and steadfast as the mind 

 of the Eternal. Conformity or suffering is the only 

 alternative : let the character of the transgressor 



o 



be in other respects good or bad, the punishment is 

 equally sure. God doth not suffer his law to be 

 changed : he changes the countenance of the vio- 

 lator, and sendeth him away. 



To render your observance of the above law both 



