The Litchfield County post., 1827-08-09

from uuTatlon, anu all posSiple society, ana giving
frightfuI roar, awoke to despair and inexpressibe
horror.
SIGNS OF INTEMPERANCE.
Extracts from DR.. Beecher's Sermons on Etemperaace
Awe now approach to some ofthose symp-
ktoms of incompetence which abused nature
first or last never fails to give.
The eyes. Who hath redness of eyes? All
of course are not Incorporate whose visual
organs become inflamed and weak. But there
are few Incorporate persons who escape this
malady, and yet when it comes, they have no
suspicion of the cause-speak of it without
embarrassment-and wonder what the mat
ter can be-apply to the physician for eye
water, and drink on. But every man who is
accustomed to drink ardent spirits freely.
whose eye begins to redden and to weep,
ought to know what the matter is, and take
warning it is one of the signals which distress
sed nature holds out and waves in token of
distress.
Another indication Contemporaries is found
in the fulness and redness of the countenance.
1t is not the fulness and redness of health
but rather the plethora of a relaxed fibre and
peccant humors, which come to occupy the
vacancy of healthful nutrition, and to mar the
countenance with pimples and Inflammation.
All are not Incorporate of course who are af-
fected with diseases of the skin. But no hard
drinker carries such a face without guilty
and specific cause, and it is another signal of
distress which abused nature holds out, while
she cries for help.
Another indication Contemporaries may be
found in the impaired muscular strength and
tremor of the hand. Now the destroyer, in
his mining progress, approaches the citadel Of
life, and is advancing fast to make the keep
ers of the house tremble, and the strong men
bow themselves. This relaxation of the
joints, and trembling of the nerves, will be ex-
perienced especially in the morling--when
the system, unsustaned by sleep, has run
down. Now all is relaxed, tremuIous, and
faint hearted. The fire which sparkled in
the eye, the evening before, is quenched-the
courage which diIated the heart is passed a
way--and the tones of elOquence, which
dwelt on the inspired tongue, are turned into
pusillanimous complainlngs. until opium, or
bitters, or both, are thrown into the stomach
to wind up again the rundown machine.
And now the liver, stepped in fire, begins to
contract and refuses to perform its functions,
in preparing the secretions which are necas-
sary to aid digestion and loss ofappette en-
sues; and indigestion, and fermentation, and
acidty, begin to rob the system of nutrition,
and to vex and irritate the vital organ, filing
the stomach with air, and the head with
fumes, and the soul with darkness and ter
rOr.
This reiterated irritation extends by SYM
pathy to the Lungs, which become inAamed
and lacerated, until hemorrhage ensues. And
now the terrified victim hastens to the physi
clan to stay the progress of consumption,
which intemperance has begun. and which
medical treatment, while the cause continues,
cannot arrest.
About this time the fumes of the boiling fur
mace below begin to lacerate the throat and
blister the tongue and the lip. Here again the
physician IS called in to ease these tOrmentS,
but until the fires beneath are extinct, what
| can the physician do ! He can no more alIevi-
ate these woes than he can carry alienation
to the tormented in the flames for which these
are the sad preparations.
Another indication of intemperanee is irri-
liability, petulance, and violent anger. The
great organ of nervous sensibility has been
brought into state OftremulOus excitement.
The slightest touch causes painful vibrations,
and irritations, which defy self-goverment.--
The temper becomes like the fash of powder,
or ungovcrnable and violent as the helm driven
hither and thither by raging winds and noun
tain waves.
Another indication ofintemperance is to be
found in the extinction of all the finer feelings
and amiabe dispositions of the soul; and, if
there have ever seemed to be religious affec-
tons, of these also. The fiery stimulus has
raised the organ of sensibility above the power
of excitement by motives addressed to the
finer feelings fthe soul, and of the moral ma
ture, and left the man prey to animal sensa-
ton. You might as well fling out music upon
the whirlwind to stay its course, as to govern
the storm within by the gentler feelings of hui
mainly. The only stimulant which now has
power to move is ardent spirits he who
has arrived at this condition is lost. He has
left far behind the wreck of what he once was.
He is not the same husband or father, or broth
er, or friend. The sea has made clear breach
over him, and swept away forever whatsoever
things are pure, and lovely, and of good re-
port.