The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-05-01
SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE INSTRUC-
TION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL.
BY FRANCES A. WILLARD.

~ " S."'S 'NtS VI W. i'm IN nv AANNtC
of silver, then in one made of porcelain.
You will find that it keeps just as good
time in a cheap case as in a costly one, be-
cause there is no nter-dependence between
the watch and its environment. But God
has wound up a watch in this snug, round
box on the top of your heads and mine;
warranted, with good usage, to tick right
on with thoughts for eighty or a hundred
years. A watch with the handspring of
reason, the balance-wheel of judgment, the
fine jewels of imagination and fancy, the
dial-plate of a human face divine, and the
pointers of character thereon, and this
wonderful watch, the human brain, can not
keep as good time in a coarse case as in a
fine one, for there is the closest inter-de-
pendence between the brain and it's envi-
ronment; between the tissues of the body
and the temper of the soul.
Just as Theodore Thomas controls an
orchestra with his baton, or an engineer
his engine with the throttle valve. or an
! operator his telegraph line, so the wonder
full prisoner in the brain controls the body's
intricate machinery. Given so much clear
thought, and you will get SO much clear
action. Given so much crazy thought,
and you will get so much crazed action.
There is not an axiom of mathematics
more fixed than this physical law. The
man who can't think his W thoughts,
though nobody binders him; can't speak
his W words, though everybody wishes
that he could; can't use his own five
senses, though they were given him for
that specific purpose; whose cruelty is
greatest toward those he loves the best,
presents natures supreme illustration of
the law that alcoholic stimulants have no
business in the economics of a well-ordered
physical life, and the time to teach this
law is Just so soon as a childs' brain can
trated from another point of view. The
geography of character is a "branch,'
sure to be taught some day in public
schools. But character is bounded on the
north by sobriety, OF the east by integ-
rity, on the west by industry, and on the
south by gentleness. Blu these cardinal
points are all determined by the first, So
briefly. Clearly note first that this virtue
m precede that of integrity. As George
Eliot has said, with her almost preternat-
ural discrimination, 'We can not command
veracity at will; the power of seeing and
reporting truth is a form of health that
has to be delicately guarded DR.. Ben
iamin Ward Richardson, the leading
specialist of England, has spent twenty-five
years studying the effects of alcoholic
stimulants. During q series of expert
ments he associated 800 chief physicians
with him in his study, and they met in
London ~semi-annually to give results. In
one conclusion they all agreed, and it was
this: No form of degeneracy produced
by alcoholic beverages is more invariable
than the drinkers untruthfulness in word
and deed. The person who drinks will use
all his ingenuity to conceal first, the fact
itself, next its consequences, and soon the
fine edge OF perception and conscience are
worn away, so that he is intrusive rthy in
ChALJ ing SbNAC cVbii Wy obiNhh
integrity as an essential of genuine charac-
ter. Next comes industry. But the mus
Giles are only 'middlemen' 'twixt mind and
matter; their masters are the nerves or
message-bearers, and alcohol strikes for
the brain as a panther leaps upon a deer.
So that the muscles, receiving wrong
orders from the great nerve center, move
i'll unwieldy fashion; the hand cannot
grasp tools, the foot reports distance mac
curately; the man is transformed from a
toiler to a r%eeler, and proof most painful
and humiliating is given that sobriety out
ranks industry upon the map of character.
But g%entleness remains to be considered.
1t is the perfect flower of strength, the or
nament of industry, the fragrance of integ-
rity. But %gentleness can not live without
sobriety. That is its vital breath, its ma
tive air. For g%entleness is governor of
characters great engine, the plumb-line of
its perfectness, the pinnacle that holds its
compass true, so that when you have
''boxed the compass" you shall find So
briefly the virtue that dominates all others,
since the clear, calm, normal brain turns
the pointer of all human hope. Why
should it not be so? This body that W Re
live in is in a sense the universe to us.
We get no light save that which comes in
through this strange sky-light of the brain.
The man wonderful lives in a house beauti-
full, and it is all in all to him. 1t was
meant to be his perfect instrument and not
his prison. Perfect obedience to its laws
would make him the true microcosm-the
mirror of the universe-nay, of its Creator.
In his Ignorance he began to use strong
drinks, and honestly called them "a good
creature of Cod But the attractive in
gTedient in all these beverages is alcohol, a
poison that has this c~hangeless law, that it
acts in exact proportion to the quantity
imbibed upon the brain and nerN Gus sys-
tenn precisely as fire acts upon water, lap
ping it up with a fierce and Unsuitable
thirst. This affinity of alcohol for mois-
ture is like a feverish and consuming pas
sion, and the blistered nose, burnt brain.
and parboiled stomach of the drinking
man are natures perpetual object lessons
to illustrate the fact that alcohol must be