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SPECIAL PUBLIC EVILS.

[Part VI.

4. Upon national industry , too, the effects of intemperanceare manifest and mischievous. The results of national industrydepend on the amount of well-directed intellectual and physicalenergy. But intemperance paralyzes and destroys both thesesprings of action. In the inventory of national loss by intem-perance, may be set down the labor prevented by indolence, bydebility, by sickness, by quarrels and litigation, by gaming, bymistakes and misdirected efforts, by improvidence and wasteful-ness, and by the diminished length of human life and activity.Little wastes in great establishments, constantly occurring, mayimpair or destroy the productiveness of a very large capital.But, where the intellectual and muscular energies are raised tothe working point daily by ardent spirits, until the agriculture,and commerce, and arts of a nation move on by the power ofartificial stimulants, that moral power cannot be maintained, whichwill guaranty industry and integrity, and that physical power can-not be preserved and well directed, which will insure nationalprosperity.

5. The effects of intemperance upon civil liberty ought notto pass unnoticed. It is admitted that intelligence and virtue arethe pillars of republican institutions, and that the illumination ofschools, and the moral power of religious institutions, are indis-pensable to secure this intelligence and virtue. But who arefound so uniformly in the ranks of irreligion as the intemperate ?Who like these violate the sacredness of Sunday, and set theirmouths against the heavens, neglecting the education of theirchildren, and corrupting their morals ? Much the larger part ofnational ignorance and crime, is the offspring of intemperance.Throughout the land, the intemperate are hewing down the pillars,and undermining the foundations, of our national edifice.

IV. The remedy of intemperance. By what means can theevil of intemperance be stayed ?

1. There should be extended through the country an all-pervading sense of the danger of falling into this sin. Intem-perance is a disease, as well as a crime; and, were any otherdisease equally contagious, equally well marked in its symptoms,and equally mortal, to pervade the land, it would create universalconsternation. Much is said of “ the prudent use ” of spirituousliquors ; but there is no prudent use of them, except when they