drunk to excess, and they always will; there is so much capital embarked in the business of importation and distillation, and so much supposed gain in vending ardent spirit, and such an insatiable demand for it, and such ability to pay for it by high-minded, wilful, independent freemen, that nothing can be done."

Then, farewell, a long farewell, to all our greatness! The present abuse of ardent spirit has grown out of what was the prudent use of it, less than one hundred years ago; then, there was very little intemperance in the land, most men, who drank at all, drank temperately. But if the prudent use of ardent spirit one hundred years ago has produced such results as now exist, what will the present intemperate use accomplish in a century to come? Let no man turn off his eye from this subject, or refuse to reason, and remain blind to the inference that there is a moral certainty of a wideextended ruin, without reformation. The seasons are not more sure to roll, the sun to shine, or the rivers to flow, than the present enormous consumption of ardent spirit is sure to produce the most deadly consequences to the nation. It will be consumed in a compound ratio, and there is a physical certainty of the dreadful consequences. Have you taken the dimensions of the evil, its manifold and magnifying miseries, its sure-paced and tremendous ruin? And shall it come unresisted by prayer, and without a finger lifted to stay the desolation?

What if all men had cried out, as some did, at the commencement of the Revolutionary struggle, "Alas, we must submit; we must be taxed; nothing can be done. Oh, the fleets and armies of England, we cannot stand before them!" Had such counsels prevailed, we should have abandoned a righteous cause, and forfeited that aid of Heaven, for which

men are always authorized to trust in God, who are disposed to do his will.

Nothing can be done? Why can nothing be done? Because the intemperate will not stop drinking, shall the temperate keep on, and become drunkards? Because the intemperate cannot be reasoned with, shall the temperate become madmen? And because force will not avail with men of independence and property, does it follow that reason and conscience, and the fear of the Lord, will have no influence?

And because the public mind is now unenlightened and unawakened and unconcentrated, does it follow that it cannot be enlightened and aroused and concentrated, in one simultaneous and successful effort? Reformations as much resisted by popular feeling, and impeded by ignorance, interest, and depraved obstinacy, have been accomplished, through the medium of a rectified public opinion; and no nation ever possessed the opportunities and the means that we possess, of correctly forming the public opinion; nor was a nation ever called upon to attempt it by motives of such imperious necessity. Our all is at stake; we shall perish, if we do not effect it. There is nothing, that ought to be done, which a free people cannot do.

But we

The science of self-government is the science of perfect government, which we have yet to learn and teach, or this nation and the world must be governed by force. have all the means, and none of the impediments, which hinder the experiment amid the dynasties and feudal despotisms of Europe. And what has been done justifies the expectation that all which yet remains to be done will be accomplished. The abolition of the slave-trade, an event now almost accomplished, was once regarded as a chimera of benevolent dreaming. But the band of Christian heroes who consecrated

their lives to the work, may some of them survive to behold it achieved. This greatest of evils upon earth, this stigma of human nature, wide-spread, deep-rooted, and intrenched by interest and state policy, is passing away before the unbending requisitions of enlightened public opinion.

No great melioration of the human condition was ever achieved without the concurrent effort of numbers; and no extended, well-directed application of moral influence was ever made in vain. Let the temperate part of the nation awake and reform, and concentrate their influence in a course of systematic action, and success is not merely probable, but absolutely certain. And cannot this be accomplished; cannot the public attention be aroused and set in array against the traffic in ardent spirit, and against its use? With just as much certainty can the public sentiment be formed and put in motion, as the waves can be moved by the breath of heaven, or the massive rock, balanced on the precipice, can be pushed from its place of repose; and when the public sentiment once begins to move, its march will be as resistless as the same rock thundering down the precipice. Let no man, then, look upon our condition as hopeless, or feel, or think, or say, that nothing can be done. The language of Heaven to our happy nation is, "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt ;" and there is no despondency more fatal or more wicked than that which refuses to hope and to act, from the apprehension that nothing can be done.

LECTURE VI.

THE REMEDY OF INTEMPERANCE.

"Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that ke may be delivered from the power of evil! Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.

"Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory." HABAKKUK 2: 9-11, 15, 16.

LET us now take an inventory of the things which can be done to resist the progress of intemperance. I shall set down nothing which is chimerical, — nothing which will not commend itself to every man's judgment, as entirely practicable.

1. It is entirely practicable to extend universal information on the subject of intemperance. Its nature, causes, evils, and remedy, may be universally made known. Every pulpit and every newspaper in the land may be put in requisition to give line upon line on this subject, until it is done. The national Tract Society may, with great propriety, volunteer in this glorious work, and send out its warning voice, by winged messengers, all over the land. And would all this accomplish nothing? It would prevent the formation of intemperate

habits in millions of instances, and it would reclaim thousands in the early stages of this sin.

2. It is practicable to form an association for the special purpose of superintending this great subject, whose untiring energies shall be exerted in sending out agents, to pass through the land, collect information, confer with influential individuals and bodies of men, deliver addresses at popular meetings, and form societies auxiliary to the parent institution. This not only may be done, but, I am persuaded, will be done, before another year shall have passed away.* Too long have we slept. From every part of the land we hear of the doings of the destroyer, and yet the one-half is not told. But when the facts are collected and published, will not the nation be moved? It will be moved. All the laws of the human mind must cease, if such disclosures as may be made do not produce a great effect.

3. Something has been done, and more may be done, by agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing establishments, in the exclusion of ardent spirit as an auxiliary to labor. Every experiment which has been made by capitalists, to exclude ardent spirit and intemperance, has succeeded, and greatly to the profit and satisfaction both of the laborer and his employer. And what is more natural and easy than the extension of such examples by capitalists, and by voluntary associations, in cities, towns, and parishes, of mechanics and farmers, whose resolutions and success may, from time to time, be published, to raise the flagging tone of hope, and assure the land of her own self-preserving powers? Most

*These discourses were composed and delivered at Litchfield, in the year 1826 since that time, the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance has been formed, and is now in successful operation.