Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1842-05-19
Temperance.
MR.. MARSHALL ON TEMPERANCE.

Mr.. MARSHALL spoke again at another
Temperance meeting in New York, on
Saturday night, 7th instant, and like his
first effort, we find this speech reported in
the papers. Abiding to the effects Of al.
cohol upon the nervous system, he said:
1t not only inhames the stomach in the
manner illustrated so well tonight, ad-
vancing from the first stages Of irritation,
to the last stages of gangrenous inflamma.
|tion-prostrating all the powers and Ut
terly destroying all the functions which
nature intended that organise wonder
ful in its contrivance, and so important in
its relations to the whole animal economy
TO perform. 1t not only does this-if
it rested content with this, it would only
achieve wha, a variety Of other substances
found in nature, but alien to the human
constitution, can effect. But it is upon
the finer and subtler instruments of the
human mind, with which that wonderful
creation, we call the human understand.
ing, so far as we are acquainted with it,
operates-i: is upon The sensorium, upon
the brain and the nervous system that al.
cohol works its deadliest ruin and it is
there that it achieves the overthrow of
the intellectual and moral man! What
this connexion of mind with the material
frame is, it is not for me to inquire. 1t
has perplexed and bafiied all philosophy.
How it is that the mind which | possess,
and which presume every one who hears
me now believes to be spiritual and inn
mortal, which creed not fanciful appre-
bends to be an emanation from Divinity it.
sell, infused into man the very nostrils Of
his Creator, as communicated to US in the
revelation Of the Infinite God-how it is
that this immortal principle does operate
and communicate with external nature
through the medium of the brain and
nerves, which permeate and penetrate
every part OF the human body, and by
which alone sensations and ideas are con-
veyed to the human understanding.
mean not to inquire, and if | did, | fear
the inquiry would be fruitess. But we
know that such is the fact. Destroy some
nerves, and one class Of sensations cease
destroy another set of nerves, and the
power of the mind over the musces--the
emotions Of the will, Of voliton, have no
response in the concurrent action Of the
physical frame. We know, therefore,
that the nervous fluid, whatever it may
be--that the brain is the seat of sensation
and the great organ of the mind, and
that the nerves are so many messengers,
stretching out from that wondrous struc-
ture to every part of the body. bringing
back to the throne of intellect all that they
learn of the mighty nature With which
they are surrounded. That this alcohol
operates upon these messengers so as to
deprive them Of their peculiar powers--to
dstor, the information which they receive,
and render them instead of being the her.
aids of truth from the universe to the en-
throned monarch within--the soul of man
they become the lying heralds of false
prescriptions and false impressions. APP
plause.1 1t is then upon the finer instru-
ments Of the ntellect-material though
they be, yet by means of which the Al
mighty has enabled The human under.
standing to hold communication with hu-
man nature, and draw the Information
which it seeks from the external world
it is upon these instruments that the subtle
foe 10 all that is divine in our nature, ex-
erts its greatest powers, and exhibits all
its potency of destruction. And oh! what
a great work Of ruin is that. Gentlemen
saw il stimulates. And so it does, and q
most unhealthy stimulus it Is to the animal
fibre Let these animal spirits alone, OF
supply them only with their natural ali.
\ s.k 4
provided, for God has furnished us with an
al-sufficient magazine TO serve tor al! the
purposes If life, and enable us fully to re.