LIVES Jhortened by TEA. 
230 
Can any reafonable perfon doubt that this flatulent liquor 
fhortens the lives of great numbers of people ? Were we to 
reckon that only one in a thoufand dies annually of this slow 
poison, out of two millions of tea-drinkers, the flare would 
fuffer the heavy lofs of two thoufand fubjects. If to the 
common vices and evils of life, we add fupernumerary de- 
baucheries, as the effects of one vice add flrength to the effedls 
of another, the calculation muff grow to an amazing height. 
Is not this lipping fafhion become a vice ? Granting that it is 
not vicious in itfelf ; if the example reaches to the poor, and it 
is vicious in them, it becomes vicious in the rich alfo, who 
perfift in the ufe of it ; becaufe it is not necessary, nor any 
mark of a neceffary or ufeful distinction. I am fenfible that 
this rule will not hold in all things, but it holds in the pre- 
Lent cafe. 
How many thoufands in this nation are annually poifoned by 
tea, gin, and wine. Many, indeed, by ufing them in excefs ; 
many for not declining the ufe of them entirely ; and many for 
ufing fuch as are bad of their kind : fo many, I fear, are cut off 
before their time, that the ftate will foon feel the want of them. 
If we had no other vicious habit than drinking tea, there 
would be lefs caufe to be alarmed : but what do you think 
of seventy thousand public-houfes in England ! Well 
might the Spaniard fay, “ England is a country where half 
“ the people are employed to fill liquor for the other half.” To 
one who is preferved by fuch a multitude of drinking-houfes, 
5 we 
