The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1829-06-03
FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.
DRUNKENNESS

| The appetite for intoxicating liquors appears
| to me TO be almost always acquired. One proof
of which is, that it is apt to return only at par
ticular times and places as, after dinner in the
| evening, on the market day, at the mark ct
town, IN such a company, at such tavern.
And this may be the reason, that if habit of
drunkenness be ever overcome, it is upon some
change OF place, situation, company or profess
sion. A man sunk deep in habit of drunken
ness, VIII, on such occasions as these, when he
| finds himself loosened from the associations
which held him fast, sometimes make plunge.
and get out. In a matter of SO great impor-
lance, it is well worth while, where it is tolera-
bly, convenient, to change our habitation and
society, ter the sake of experiment. Habits of
drunkenness commonly take their rise either
from fondness for and connexion with some
\ company, or some companion already addicted
| TO this practice, which afford an almost ire
sistible invitation to take share in the indul-
! gencies, which those about US are enjoying with
20 much apparent relish and delight: or from
want OF regular employment, which is sure to
let In many superhuous cravings and customs,
md 2tten this amongst the rest or lastly, from
grief or fatigue, both which strongly solicit
that relief which inebriating liquors admins
ter, and furnish specicus excuse for comply
ing with the inclination. But tho habit when
once set in, is continued by different motives
lToH1 JDOSe TO WHICH II owes lCS origin. persons
addicted to excessive drinking suffer in the in
tervals of sobrety, and near the return of their
accustomed indulgence, faintness and oppres-
sion which it exceeds the ordinary patience of
human nature to endure. This is usually re-
| lieVed for short time, by repetition of the
same oXcess and to this relief, as to the re-
moval of every long continued pain, they who
have once experienced it, are urged almost be-
yond the power of resistance. This is not all
! as the liquor loses its stimulus, the dose must
be increased, to reach the same pitch OF eleva-
ton, or ease; which increase proportionably
accelerates the progress of all maladies that
drunkenness brings on. Whoever reflects upon
the violence of the craving in the advanced
stages of the habit and the fatal termination to
which the qualification of it leads, will, the mo-
ment he perceives in himself the first symp-
toms of growing inclination to intemperance
| collect his resolution to this point |; or (what
perhaps he will find his best security arm him.
selfwth some peremptory rule, as to the times
and quantity of his indulgencies. l own my
self friend to the laying down of rules to our
selves Of this sort, and rigidly abiding by them.
They may be exclaimed against as stiff, but
they often ara salutary. Indefinite resolutions
of abstemiousness are apt to yield to setraOr-
binary occasions and extraordinary occasions
to occur perpetually. Whereas, the stricter the
rule Is, the more tenacious grow Of it; and
many man will abstain rather than break his
ruls, who would not easily be brought 10 sxer-
eiSc the same modification from higher mo-
tiYss- Not to mention, that when our rule is
to every importantly There is a difference;
no doubt, between convivial intemperanee and
that solitary sotishness, which waits neither
for company nor invitation. But the emo,
am afraid commonly ends in she other; and
this last is the basest degradation to which the
faculties and dignity of human nature san be
reduced. G..