The Litchfield County post., 1826-11-28

uy;ous arrangements for the entertainment
If company. In these polite circles Il is
beginning to be vulgar and disreputable,
either to drink drains ones self, or TO offer |
and urge them on our visitors and ASSOC
ciates. five can carry forward this refor-
nation till the total abstinence from intOx-
icating liquors, shall be among the traits
which distinguish the gentleman from the
clown. we shall have laid the axe at the
root of the tree of evil! But, this can
neither be affected easily nor speedily. 1t
will too frequently he regarded as contem-
plating some degree Of personal sacrifice,
and it will be difficult to persuade people,
generally that there is an adequate cause
for this either III the private sufIerings or
public burdens occasiored by intemperance.
Besides, there are certain prevalent opin-
ions and reasons which are thought to JUS
tify and even recommend the occasional
use of spirits. The most prevalent and
plausible of these, and the only one which
deserves contemplation is the belief, that,
what is called the moderate use of them is,
on some occasions essential, frequently be-
nefcial and rarely or never decidedly det-
Irimentsl to health. Accordingly one dares
equally afraid Of the heat, or they cannot
sustain the fatigue of labour, or will want
an appetite, or fear indigestion unless they
fortify and provide themselves against all
these accidents and occasions by cordial
sdraught of Alcohol, which thus comes to
be regarded as an inestimable panacea, the
genuine elixir of life. There cannot be a
more vulgar and fatal error than this, and
we could easily refnte 1T blythe application
of the more correct physiological princi-
pie but it would lead us far into discussions
which would be too technical to be general
ly ineligible or interesting. We will on
ly state in this connexion that it is an adj
mitted principle among those who have
been the most assiduous and successful stu
dents Of the powers and properties of liv-
ing bodies, that all unnatural stimuli adj
ministered to healthfiA subject, will! dis
Iturb the proper equilibrium between the
powers and actions. fthe several parts of
the system, and therefore will inevitably
impair and undermine the health. There
| is not a plant nor brute on the face of the
earth in which all the functions necessary
to its healthful existence are not carried
on without the interpnsition of any other
stimulus than that of the substances and
fluids necessary for its nutrition and
growth, and is it supposable that man a
lone by natural deficiency in his physi-
cal organization, is driven, for the sake of
health and vigour, to seek out that very in
vention which has contributed more than
any thing else to the degeneracy and de-
pravity of his whole nature? Experience
assures us that this is not the fact. If we
look for the most healthy people in society,
they will be found among the most tempe
rate, and generally the correspondence is
very exact, that they enjoy health in pro-
portion as they abstain from spirituous IL
quors. On the contrary, it is we'll known
to physicians, if not understood by all, that
even a moderate use Of them progresses
the body to become the victim of many di-
seases which would have assailed it in vain
were it not that its powers of resistance
have been exhausted by the continual ap-
plication OF unnecessary stimulus, that
many diseases assume in such persons a
| malignant. and alarming character which in
a temperate subject would have been mill
and manageable, the system is rem
dered insusceptible to the kind operation
of some of the most valuable medical a.
gents, by the habitual use of intoxicating
drinks; and that the most robust constitu-
ton is always liable to degenerate and fail
under draughts from these poisonous foun-
tains of melancholy, debility, disease and
death. The nonsense and falsehood, there
fore, must no longer be tolerated, that
certain portion of spirits is healthful and
harmless. And whoever under this fiimsy
pretence, INDUCES himself in drinking. it,
thereby authorizing and encouraging his
servants, his apprentices, or his children to
do likewise, would do well seriously to en-
quire, if he is not exposing himself to the
penalty of the anathema, sodstinctly pro-
nounced in the scriptures, against him who
holdeth the cup to his neighbours lip.
We quote from the same report, the fol-
lowing earnest and just appeal.
Passing by other motives to your zeal
Gus endeavours to check this monstrous
vice, we urge you to look on it moment
in national point of view, as Americans,
as patriots. That it deserves to be SO con-
sidered, may be made sufficiently manifest.
Is not that national concern, which
throws on the public am enormous burden
Of unnecessary panperism? The amount
of which throughout the country, may be
partially apprehended from the fact, that
IN Macsa ch,,cxstcs s,,1,e,e %L.a s,,s~,.I 81 -