RACIAL DIFFERENCES 121 



days — from an ancestry which, owing to its pur- 

 chasing power, was admittedly drunken, and which, 

 therefore, suffered much greater elimination than 

 the ancestors of the lower classes. Moreover, in- 

 temperate families of the better classes furnish 

 recruits to the lower classes, whereas temperate 

 members of the latter frequently force their way 

 into the ranks of the former. The better classes 

 are supposed to exercise greater self-control ; but, 

 once again, let me ask my readers of the better 

 classes whether they actually do exercise great 

 self-control ? Are they really temperate only 

 because they continually resist a tormenting 

 craving for drunkenness ? Is the craving for 

 intoxication in them like a constant thirst or 

 hunger ? I think only the exceptional individual 

 will answer in the affirmative. If it were true 

 that moderate drinkers felt this great craving, we 

 should all be abstainers or drunkards. What 

 resolute decent man under such circumstances 

 would dare to drink or offer drink, and thus lead 

 himself, his friends, and his unfortunate children 

 into drunkenness, or into a scarcely less miserable 

 torment, of resistance to urgent temptation. 



It is not, of course, intended to deny all in- 

 fluence to education. The Puritans were more 

 temperate than their fathers ; the better classes 

 are more temperate to-day than they were a 



