MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VIEW. 231 



Dr. Johnson was once remonstrating with a man 

 engaged in some occupation which he confessed to 

 be wrong. The man excused himself by the com- 

 mon plea : " But I must live, sir," when the 

 sturdy doctor rejoined, "I don't know that that 

 is necessary." 



K Fear to endanger your craft," the wholesale 

 and retail distribution of poison ! If those medi- 

 cal and scientific men who assert that " Indulgence 

 in narcotic luxuries is the great highway to the 

 grave" have uttered the truth, then let all such 

 crafts sink to the bottom of the sea ! If your plea 

 of necessity is a true one, then, better live and die 

 in poverty, or trust to God's ravens, than to thrive 

 by poisoning your fellow men. Besides you can- 

 not wrong your neighbor without reaping, sooner 

 or later, a bitter harvest. To commit a doubtful 

 act injures the doer as really as the receiver ; to 

 sanction an admitted wrong will in* some way 

 bring you incalculable harm. 



Put your commercial interests, as you call them, 

 into one scale, and the welfare of the community 

 into the other. How is it with your end of the bal- 

 ance ? Do not reason and conscience make your 

 path plain ? What if you should resolve that not 

 for another day will you curse the ground with 

 the growth of the rank poison ; that you will never 

 manufacture, that you will never sell, another ounce 

 of it? 



