68 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



moderate, and that the man in him has the 

 mastery over he animal. Let govern- 

 ments load with high duties all spirituous 

 liquors, luxurious beverages for the rich, 

 but utter poison for the people, agents of 

 depravity, demoralization, and degenera- 

 tion, equally fatal to public morals and 

 public health ; let them impose an arbi- 

 trary tax on tobacco, and even monopolize 

 the sale at fictitious prices ; let them do 

 likewise with playing-cards and other 

 articles which supply merely imaginary 

 wants, these are measures whose political 

 legitimacy or economic utility may be at- 

 tacked, but which cannot be contested as 

 contrary to the popular interest, or to the 

 increase of its comfort or its moral im- 

 provement. 



u Cocoa is, on the contrary, among the 

 few articles it is perhaps the only one 

 whose sale should be not only released 

 from all constraint, but encouraged and 

 extended, because it is the only article of 



