the idea of the vile change would be so fixed in the minds of its beholders, as to render them utterly averfe from its caufe.

And may we not juftly conclude it to be from hence, that the offspring of the perfors who are accustomed thus to difguife themselves, often prove remarkably fober? They avoid, in their riper years, their parent's crime, from the deteftation of it, which they contracted in their earlier. As to most other vices, their debafing circumftances are not fully known to us, till we have attained a maturity of age, nor can be then, till they have been duly attended to: but in our very childhood, at our first beholding the effects of drunkenness, we are ftruck with astonishment, that a reasonable being thould be thus changed-should be induced to make himfelf fuch an object of contempt and fcorn. And, indeed, we must have the man in the utmost contempt, whom we hear and fee in his progrefs to excefs; at first, teazing you with his contentioufnefs or impertinence-mistaking your meaning, and hardly knowing his own-then, faultering in his fpeechanable to get through an entire fentence his hand trembling-his eyes fwimminghis legs too feeble to fupport him; till, at length, you only know the human creature by his fhape.

I cannot but add, that were one of any fense to have a just notion of all the filly things he fays or does, of the wretched appearance, which he makes in a drunken ft, he could not want a more powerful argument against repeating his crime.

But as none of us are inclined to think ill of ourselves, we none of us will know, how far our vices expofe us; we allow them excufes, which they meet not with from any but ourselves.

This is the cafe of all; it is particularly fo with the drunken; many of whom their frame would undoubtedly reform, could they be brought to conceive, how much they did to be ashamed of.

of

Nor is it improbable, that it is this very confideration, how much drunkennefs contributes to make a man the contempt of his wife-his children-his fervants all his fober beholders, which has been the cause, that it has never been the reigning vice among a people of any refinement of manners: No, it has only prevailed among the rude and favage, among thofe of groffer understandings, and lefs delicacy of fentiment. Crimes, as there are in all men, there must be in all nations; but the more

civilized have perceived drunkenness to be fuch an offence against common decency, fuch an abandoning one's felf to the ridicule and fcoffs of the meaneft, that, in whatever elfe they might tranfgrefs, they would not do it in this particular; but leave a vice of fuch a nature to the wild and uncultivated-to the ftupid and undistinguishing part of mankind-to thofe, who had no notion of propriety of character, and decency of conduct. How late this vice became the reproach of our countrymen, we find in Mr. Cambden's Annals. Under the year 1581, he has this obfervation"The English, who hitherto had, of all the "northern nations, fhewn themselves the "least addicted to immoderate drinking, "and been commended for their fobriety, "first learned, in these wars in the Ne"therlands, to swallow a large quantity " of intoxicating liquor, and to destroy "their own health, by drinking that of "others."

Some trace of our antient regard to fobriety, we may feem ftill to retain, in our ufe of the term for! which carries with it as great reproach among us, as Owolages did among the Greeks.

There is a fhort story, in Rerefby's Memoirs, very proper to be mentioned under

this head.

The Lord Chancellor (Jeffries) had now like to have died of a fit of the ftone; which he virtually brought upon himself, by a furious debauch of wine, at Mr. Alderman Duncomb's; where he, the Lord Treasurer, and others, drank themselves into that height of frenzy, that, among friends, it was whifpered, they had ftripped into their fhirts; and that, had not an accident prevented them, they had got upon a fign-poft, to drink the King's health; which was the fubject of much derifion, to fay no worse. Dean Bolton.

$136. On Intemperance in Drinking.
SECT. II.

A fecond objection to drunkenness is that it hinders any confidence being repofed in us, fo far as our fecrecy is concerned.

Who can trust the man, that is not mafter of himself? Wine, as it leffens our caution, fo it prompts us to speak our thoughts without referve: when it has fufficiently inflamed us, all the fuggestions of prudence pafs for the apprehenfions of cowardice; we are regardless of confequences; our forefight is gone, and our fear with it.

Here

Here then the artful perfon properly introducing the fubject, urging us to enter upon it-and, after that, praifing, or blaming, or contradicting, or questioning us, is foon able to draw from us whatever information he defires to obtain.

Our difcretion never outlafts our fobriety. Failings which it most concerns us to conceal, and which, when we are ourselves, we do most industriously conceal, we ufually publish, when we have drank to excess. The man is then clearly feen, with all the ill nature and bad qualities, from which his behaviour, in his cooler hours, had induced his most intimate friends to believe him wholly free. We must be loft to reflection, to thought, when we can thus far throw off our diguife. And what is it, but our thought and reflection, that can engage our fecrecy in any inftance--that can ever be a proper check upon our difcourfe-that enables us to diftinguish what we may fpeak, and on what we ought to be filent? Do we cease to be in a condition to hide the deformities in ourselves, which we moft wish to have concealed? On what point, then, is it likely that we should be referved? Whofe fecrets can he keep, who fo foully betrays his own?

It may, thirdly, be alledged against drunkennefs, that it gives the crafty and knavifh the most dangerous advantage

over us.

This vice puts us into the very circumflances, in which every one would with us to be, who had a view to impofe upon us, to over-reach us, or in any way to gain his ends of us. When the repeated draught has difordered us, it is then, that only by complying with our humour, and joining, to appearance, in our madnefs, we may be deluded into measures the moft prejudicial to us, into fuch as are our own and our families utter undoing. It is then that our purfe is wholly at the mercy of our company; we fpend-we give-we lend-we lofe. What unhappy marriages have been then concluded! What ruinous conveyances have been then made! How fecure foever we may apprehend ourfelves from impofitions of fo very pernicious a nature; yet more or fewer we must have to fear from drunkennefs, as the opportunities, which it gives, will conftantly be watched by all, who have any defign upon us: and if we are known frequently to diforder ourfelves, all in our neighbourhood, or among our acquaintance, who are of any ferioufnefs and decency, will be fure to

avoid us, and leave us wholly to those, who find their account in aflociating with us; who, while they can make us their proper. ty, will be, as often as we please, our companions.

A fourth argument against drunkenness is its bad effects upon our health. Every act of it is a fever for a time: and whence have we more reafon to apprehend one of a longer continuance, and of the worit confequence? Our blood thus fired, none can be fure, when the diforder raised in it will be quieted, whether its inflammatory state will admit of a remedy: in feveral thoufands it has been found incapable of any; and what has fo frequently happened to others, may juftly be confidered as likely to befal us. By the fame abfurd reliance on a good conftitution, through which they were deceived, we may be so likewie.

But fuppofing the mere fever fit wearing off with the drunken one; how fatal would it prove to be then feized with a distemper of the infectious kind, that was at all malignant! This has often been the cafe; and when it has been fo, the applications of the most skilful have heen entirely vain.

Let our intemperance have nothing inflantly to dread; for how fhort a fpace can it be in fuch fecurity? The you g debauchee foon experiences the iffue of his mifconduct-foon finds his food difrelished, his flomach weakened, his ftrength decay. ed, his body wafted. In the flower of his youth, he often feels all the infirmities of extreme old age; and when not yet in the middle of human life, is got to the end of his own.

If we have attained to manhood, to our full vigour, before we run into the excess, from which I am diffuading; we may, indeed, poffibly be many years in breaking a good conftitution: but then, if a fudden ftroke dipatch us not; if we are not cut off without the least leifure given us to implore the mercy of Heaven; to how much uneafinefs are we, generally, refervedwhat a variety of painful diftempers threaten us! All of them there is very little probability we fhould efcape; and under which foever of them we may labour, we fhall experience its cure hopeless, and its feverity the faddeft leffon, how dear the purchafe was of our former mirth.

There are, I grant, inftances, where a long-continued intemperance has not prevented the attainment of a very advanced age, free from diforders of every kind. But then it is to be confidered how rare

thefe

thefe inftances are; that it is not, perhaps, one in a thoufand, who efcapes thus; that of thofe, who do thus efcape, the far greater part owe their prefervation to hard working, or to an exercife as fatiguing, as any of the more laborious employments. So at if either our frame be not of an unal firmness, or we do not labour for our bread, and will not for our health; we cannot be of their number, who have fo uces a chance, that they will not fhorten their dvs by their excefs. And when we have this chance, we are to remember, how very little we can promife ourfelves from it. We are liable to all the difeafes, which, in the ordinary courfe of things, are connected with intemperance; and we

are able to all thofe, from which even fobriety exempts not; but in this latter cafe, we have, by no means, the fame to hope with the fober, who are eafily recovered of what proves mortal to the intemperate.

Dean Bolton.

$137. On Intemperance in Drinking.

SECT. III.

To confider, fifibly, the unhappy effect of drunkenness upon our minds.

Every time we offend in it, we are firft madmen, and then idiots: we first fay, and do, a thousand the most ridiculous and ex

ravagant things, and then appear quite vod of fenfe. By annexing thefe conftant inconveniences to drinking immoderately, it ferms the defign of a wife Providence to teach us, what we may fear from a habit of it-to give us a foretaste of the miferies, which it will at length bring upon us, not for a few hours alone, but for the whole remainder of our lives. What numbers have, by hard drinking, fallen into an incurable diftraction! And who was ever for many years a fot, without deftroying the quickhefs of his apprehenfion, and the ftrength of his memory? What mere drivellers have fome of the beft capacities become, after a long course of excels!

As we drink to raise our fpirits, but, by thus raifing, we weaken them; fo whatever fresh vigour our parts may feem to derive from our wine, it is a vigour which wates them; which, by being often thus called out, deftroys its fource, our natural fancy and understanding. 'Tis like a man's fpending upon his principal: he may, for a feaion, make a figure much fuperior to his, who fupports himfelf upon the intereft of his fortune; but is fure to be undone, when the other is unhurt.

We meet with, as I have already obferved, inftances, where an extraordinary happiness of constitution has prevented its entire ruin, even from a courfe of drunkennefs of many years continuance: but I much question, whether there are any inftances, that fuch a course has not been remarkably prejudicial to a good capacity. From all the obfervations, which we ca make on the human frame, it may be fairly fuppofed, that there are no fuch inftances that it is not reasonable to think we can be, for many years inflaming our brains, without injuring them-be continually difordering the moft delicate parts of our machine, without impairing them. A lively imagination, a quick apprehenfion, a retentive memory, depend upon parts in our ftructure, which are much more easily hurt, than fuch, whofe found ftate is neceflary for the prefervation of mere life: and therefore we perceive thofe feveral faculties often entirely loft, long before the body drops. The man is very frequently feen to furvive himself-to continue a living creature, after he has, for fome years, ceased to be a rational one. And to this deplorable ftate nothing is more likely to bring us, than a habit of drunkennefs; as there is no vice, that more immediately affects thofe organs, by the help of which we appre hend, reafon, remember, and perform the like acts.

What, fixthly, ought to raife in us the utmoft abhorrence of drunkennels is, the confideration of the many crimes, to which it difpofes us. He, through whofe veias the inflaming potion has spread itself, muft be under a greater temptation to lewdness, than you can think him in any other circumflances: and from the little reasoning, of which he is then capable, as to the difference of the two crimes, would hefitate no more at adultery than fornication.

Thus, alfo, for immoderate anger, contention, fcurrility and abuse, acts of violence, and the moft injurious treatment of others; they are all offences, into which drunkenness is most apt to betray us; fo apt to do it, that you will scarcely find a company drinking to excels, without many provoking fpeeches and actions palling in it-without more or lefs ftrife, before it feparates. We even perceive the most gentle and peaceable, the moit humane and civilized, when they are fober, no fooner intoxicated, than they put off all thofe commendable qualities, and affume, as it were, a new nature-a nature as different

f.om

from their former, as the moft untractable and fierceft of the brute kind are, from the most accomplished and amiable of our

own.

To fome vices drunkenness disposes us; and,

Laftly, lays us open to more, and certainly to the greateft. It lays us, indeed, open to most vices-by the power, which it gives all forts of temptations over us; and by putting us into a condition, in which the rafb and pernicious fuggeftions of others have an especial influence upon us-in which, a profligate companion is enabled to direct us almoft as he pleafes.

It gives all forts of temptations power over us, by difqualifying us for confideration; and by extinguishing in us all regard to the motives of prudence and caution.

It makes us ready to follow the rafheft counfels of our companions; becaufe, not allowing us to reafon upon them, and in capacitating us for the government of our felves, it, of course, leaves us to the guidance of those, with whom we are moft pleafed-of thofe, who give into our exceffes.

It, certainly, lays us open to the greatest crimes; becaufe, when we are thoroughly heated by the fpirituous draught, we then like what is daring and extravagant-we are then turned to bold and defperate un

dertakings; and that, which is moft licentious, carries then with it the appearance of an attempt, fuiting a, courageous and undaunted mind. Hence rapes, murthers, acts of the utmost inhumanity and barbarity have been their acts; who, when sober, would have detefted themselves, if fuch crimes could have entered their thoughts. It may, perhaps, be of ufe to obferve here, what cenfure has been paffed on drunkenness by thofe, who had only the light of reafon for their guide.

It was the faying of one of the wifer Heathen, That a wife man would drink wine, but would be fure never to be made drunk by it. Another of them condemns wine, as betraying even the prudent into imprudence. The advice of a third is, avoid drinking company; if you accidentally come into it, leave it before you ceafe to be fober; for, when that happens, the mind is like a chariot, whofe driver is thrown off: as it is then fure to be hurried away at random, fo are we, when our reafon is gone, fure to be drawn into much guilt. We have one calling drunkenness the study of madness; another, a voluntary madness. He who was afked, how a perfon might be brought to a diflike of wine? anfwered, by beholding the indecencies of the drunken.*

The

UT

The discountenance, which drunkenness received among the Romans, will be hereafter taken notice of.

Among the Greeks, by a law of Solon, if a chief magiftrate made himfelf drunk, he wa to be put to death. By a law of Pittacas, a double punishment was inflicted pon fuch who, when drunk, had committed any other crime. They were thofe, by whofe laws he, who drank any greater quantity of wine than was really neceffary for his health, fuffered death.

Tuas much as to their fentiments on drinking to excefs, who had only the light of Nature to fhew them its guilt. Dean Bolton. $138. On Intemperance in Drinking.

SECT. IV.

Let me in the next place, fuggeft fuch Cautions, as ought to be obferved by him, whofe defire it is to avoid drunkenness. Carefully fhun the company that is addicted to it.

Do not fit long among thofe, who are the progress towards excess.

If you have often loft the command of yourfelf, when a certain quantity of liquor has been exceeded, you should be fure to keep yourself always much within that quantity.

Make not strong liquor neceffary to your refreshment.

Never apply to it for ease, under cares and troubles of any kind.

Know always how to employ yourself ufefully, or innocently to amuse yourself, that your time may never be a burden upon you.

In the first place, Do not affociate with those who are addicted to drunkenness. This I lay down as a rule, from which it is fcarce poffible to depart, and keep our fobriety. No man, not the steadiest and wifest of men, is proof against a bad example continually before him. By frequently feeing what is wrong, we, first, lose our abhorrence of it, and, then, are easily prevailed with to do it. Where we like our company we are infenfibly led into their manners. It is natural to think we fhould endeavour to make ourselves agreeable to

A vulgar foul,

Artimus, who had ow in his hand.

the