Chap. III.]

INTEMPERANCE IN DRINKING.

405

Christian duty and virtue ; * but they strike at the root of almostall, if not quite all, the vices and evils enumerated at the be-ginning of this Part, f 2. Because, where it was impossible, asit is in an elementary treatise of Moral Philosophy, to treat all theChristian virtues separately, I have still thought it well to analyze,expand, and illustrate, as I might, and as a specimen, two, andthese the most fundamental, of the Christian virtues.

CHAPTER III.

INTEMPERANCE IN DRINKING.

I use this phrase in preference to drunkenness, as being morecomprehensive, and otherwise more suited to the purpose whichI have in view. I shall treat the subject under four divisions.I. The nature and occasions of intemperance. II. The signs.III. The evils. IV. The remedy. *

I. The more common apprehension is, that nothing is intem-perance, which does not supersede the regular operations of themental faculties and the bodily organs. However much of spirit-uous liquors a man may consume, if he can command his under-standing, his utterance, and his bodily members, he is not usuallyreputed intemperate. And yet, drinking within these limits, hemay be intemperate in respect to inordinate desire, the quantityconsumed, the expense incurred, the present effect on his health,his temper, and his moral sensibilities ; and, what is more, inrespect to the ultimate and almost inevitable results of bodilyand mental imbecility, or habitual drunkenness.

A multitude of persons, who are not accounted drunkards,create disease and shorten their days, by what they call a “ pru-dent use of spirituous liquors.” Let it, therefore, be engravenupon the heart of every man, that the daily use of spirituousliquors , in any form, or in any degree , is intemperance. Itseffects are certain and deeply injurious, though its results may

Matt. xxii. 39, 40 ; 2 Peter i. 7; Coloss. iii. 14.

t See above, p. 370.