Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-10-10
Reasons Plea for Temperance.


Br A BA1MAN OF LAST
CAS- the sole design of the appetite of hun
ger is to cblis se us mechanically, by means
of pain,- to take that due care to support the
body by proper nourishment, which reason
alone could not have done tits obvious that
thu view ght to. have in eating, is tho
support of life. That kind of food which is
fttest for nourishing the body, is evidently
the best. What is commonly called rich
feeding, is in truth slow poison. 1t there
fore strange, that men have so little COM
mand of themselves, that for the trifing
pleasure of tickling their appetite with a
savory taste, they win venture to shorten
their days. Nothing is more evident than
that to waste the bounties of Providence in
so sordid a. manner as on the materials of
gluttony, is altogether unj justifable. Riches
are stewardship, not to be squandered in
pampering to our vices, but to be expended
in such manner as we shall be able to an
swer for to Him, who entrusted us with
them. If we be really spirits, though at
present embodied, it seems plain, that feed
ing the body ought not to engross much of
our time. If indeed we look on ourselves as
more body than spirit, we ought to bestow
our principal attention on the body. But
this is what few will own in words which
makes them declaring it in their practice the
ture world of spirits to which we are hasten
ing, there will be no occasion for this appe-
tite nothing is more evident than the abb
surdity of indulging it in so licentious a
manner, as to give it an absolute an ascen-
dant over US, and SO to work it into the very
mind, that it will remain, when the body,
for whose sake it was given, has no farther
occasion for it. The design our Maker had
/ IN placing US in this state of discipline, was
to give us an opportunity of cultiyating in
ourselves other habits than those Of sensual
ity.
/ Of the many fatal contrivances which our
species, too fertile in invention, have hit up
on for corrupting themselves and perverting
the end of their creation, none would appear
more unaccountable, if we were not too much
accustomed to see instances of it, than the
savage vice of drunkenness. That it ever
could become practice for rational beings
to delight in oyerturning their reason: that
men ever could voluntarily choose, by swal-
lowing medical draught, to brutify them
selves nay, to sink themselves below the
brutes must appear to other orders of be
ings wonderfully shocking. No man car
bear the least reflection upon his understan
ding, whatever he may on his virtues.
Yet man will indulge practice by which
experience conyinces them, they will effectu
ally lose their understanding and become i'd
lots. Unthinking persons are want to look
, with contempt on natural fools.
But IN what light ought they to view foo
of his own making? What can be conceiv
l ed more unsuitable to the dignity of human
t nature, than drunkard with his eyes start
r ing, his tongue stammering, his lips culver
. ing, his legs tottering, and his stomach
J heaving! Deceucy will not suffer me Il
proceed in so filthy a description. A swine
: wallowing in the mire, is not so loathsom
g an object as drunkard; for nature in hel
q meanest dress is always nature, buta drunk
e ard is monster out of nature. The onl
e rational being on earth, reduced to absolut
: lncapacity of reason or speech A being
( formed for Immortality, sunk in filth an
sensualityi
= A creature endued with capacities fC
|, being the companion of angels, and for il
} nabltIng the ethereal regions, in conditio
t. not tltto come into clean room among
d his fellow creatures ! The lord of this worl
,fi sunk below the vilest of the brutes
- One would think all this bad enough b.
" much worse is to be said against this abon
~ Unable and fatal vice. For there is no oth'
e that SO efectually and suddenly unhing
e. and oyerturns all virtue and destroys ever
al thing valuable in the mind, as drunkenness
a. For it takes off every restraint, and opens Il
4 mind to every temptation. So that there
II no way SO expeditions for man to CORFU
7o and debauch himself, to turn himself mo
es a man into demon, as by intoxicating hir
On self with strong liquor. Nor is there Pc
he haps any other habit so bew1tching, an
cb which SO soon becomes unconauerable
drunkenness. The reason is plain.
other vice SO effeetually destroys reason ; al