( 6i ) 
with an intention of whiling away a few 
years which they knew not how otherwife 
to employ. But thefe young noblemen and 
gentlemen, will foon be too fatally convinc- 
ed, that early drinking will infallibly deftroy 
their confutations, impair their intellects, 
and fhorten their lives. I fpeak as a phy- 
fician: if there be a power on Earth, whofe 
intereft it is, gradually to annihilate the 
ftrength and political importance of this na- 
tion, no means could be devifed half fo effec- 
tual, as that of alluring the fons of noble- 
men and gentlemen of rank and fortune, to 
premature debauchery. 
You are not hence to conclude, that Na- 
ture gradually ripens men for vice. Vice is 
at all times, and in every ftage of our exift- 
ence, a moft induftrious enemy to health, 
and confequently to life; but at any age, 
before the body has attained its acme, every 
fpecies of debauchery is doubly deftruclive : 
and, were it even poflible that an herculean 
constitution mould, in time, recover the 
effect of juvenile imprudence, the refolution 
neceflary to conquer vicious habits is fo 
rarely found, that early debauchery gene- 
rally ends in premature imbecility, and de- 
crepitude both of body and mind. 
But 
