Chap. III.]

INTEMPERANCE IN DRINKING.

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may not be certain, that every one who does not return will be-come a sot; but it is certain, that be will enfeeble bis body, gen-erate disease, and shorten his days. It may not be certain, thatevery one will sacrifice his reputation, or squander his property,and die in a hospital; but it is certain, that a large proportionwill come to poverty and infamy, of those who yield daily to theperiodical appetite for ardent spirits. Here is the stopping-place ;and though beyond it men may struggle, and retard, and modifytheir progress, few, comparatively, who go by it, will return againto purity of enjoyment, and the sweets of temperate freedom.The servant has become the master, and, with a rod of iron anda whip of scorpions, he will torment them even before their time.

4. Another sign of intemperance may be seen in the desire ofconcealment. When a man finds himself disposed to drink moreoften and more in quantity than he is willing to drink in presenceof his family, and before the world, and begins to drink clandes-tinely and in secret places, he betrays a consciousness that he isdisposed to drink more than to others will appear safe and proper ;and what he suspects others may think, he ought to suppose theyhave cause to think, and reform instantly. For now he has arriv-ed at a period in the history of intemperance, where, if he doesnot stop, he will hasten on to ruin with accelerated steps. Solong as the eye of friendship, and a regard to public observation,kept him wfithin limits, there was some hope of reformation ; but,when he cuts this last cord, and launches forth alone with hisboat and his bottle, he has committed himself to mountain wavesand furious winds, and will probably never return.

5. When a man allows himself to drink always in company, asmuch as he thinks he can bear, without awakening in others thesuspicion of inebriation, he will deceive himself, but no one else.For abused nature herself will publish the excess in the bloatedcountenance, and flushed visage, and tainted breath, and inflamedeye ; and, were all these banners of intemperance struck, theman, with his own tongue, will reveal his shame. At first therewill be something strange in his appearance or conduct, to awakenobservation, and induce scrutiny ; until at length, with all his careand adroitness, in some unguarded moment he will take morethan he can bear. And now the secret is revealed, and these