[Illustration]
TEMPERANCE
O thou invisible spirit of wine; if thou hast no name to be known
by, let us call thee--devil.--Shakspeare.
Society has much to attend to. The whole wonderful
mechanism by which those citizens who now do measurably right, can have
blessings far beyond the totals of luxuries enjoyed by Kings a few
centuries ago--this whole mechanism, I think, has been perfected by one
law, the self-interest of the class wielding the force necessary to
compel the change desired. To-day, among the evils which we suffer,--not
as results of the new civilization, but as vestiges of the old
barbarism,--is the abuse of stimulants. The effects of this abuse are,
perhaps, next to atrocious crime, the most discouraging which menace the
march of progress, and
EVEN THE ANNALS OF ATROCIOUS CRIME
so closely link the curse of strong drink with deeds of violence as to
totally extinguish the mark of difference in the minds of many good men.
Society as to-day organized, commits the keeping of a woman to the hands
of a man, who in turn, is legally free to condemn her to the horrors of
companionship with a man (that man being himself) bereft periodically or
continuously of his moral motives of conduct.
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