THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



tracted more from the sum of human happiness than 

 has any other commodity or combination of commodi- 

 ties. When one considers how this enticing drug has 

 held mankind in thraldom generation after genera- 

 tion, claiming as victims some of the brightest minds 

 and most noble characters; when one reflects how it 

 undermines the physical constitution, dethrones rea- 

 son, perverts morals, breaks up families, and threatens 

 the stability of races; when one reflects on these 

 things even in their most patent bearings, one finds it 

 difficult to speak with sane moderation of a drug so all- 

 potent for evil, even as it is difficult to use the drug 

 itself in moderation. 



Yet sane criticism demands recognition of the fact 

 that vast numbers of people in every generation have 

 been able to use alcohol habitually without ever using 

 it to obvious excess, and without ever becoming its 

 slaves in the ordinary acceptance of the word. All 

 the Mediterranean races of antiquity were habitual 

 wine-drinkers, as are the Latin races of to-day. Doubt- 

 less the Greeks and Romans believed, as do the Italians, 

 Spaniards, and French of to-day, that the use of wine 

 as an habitual table beverage adds to the well being of 

 mankind. A dinner without wine would be to them a 

 repast deprived of its atmosphere of contentment and 

 geniality. 



I have neither space nor inclination to discuss here 

 the effects upon a race of such habitual and general use 

 of an alcoholic beverage; and I desire to avoid mere 

 dogmatic assertions regarding a subject of great com- 

 plexity. Nevertheless I venture to state my personal 



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