The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-10-08

TEMPER NClE NOTES.
IMoRALlTY AND ALCOHOLISM,
= rsssatisl Qsalltx 1.-The ststs Of Or.ak-
ennsss.
Dr. T. Wright, IN considering the in
fluence Of alcohol on the moral consti-s
tuition of man. remarks: - :, 4
The manners Of men as they relate
to questions of duty, obligation, SYM
pathy. and the movements of PERSONAL
ity. either for good or evil, are usually
known as morals. Manners srs much
involved with, consid erations of in
centive, motive, design, intent and pur-
pose. and they are thereby materially
colored and modified. The influence
ofalcohol on morals is immediate. It
is Perceptib BILE to observation quickly
after alcohol Is taken into the system;
but IL varies greatly, both ID kind and
intensity, with the stage of drinking.
f,s;t'1n general terms, il may be said
that no instance has been recorded
where the influence of alcohol upon .
good man, when carried to its full ex-
tent, has failed to faint his moral
nature Nor has an instance ever been
known of q character so base, so bestial
and inhuman that alcohol could not
sink 1t still lower. 1t seems, in fact,
true, rs far as the worlds experience
extends, that the depths of dcpravity
into which alcohol may plunge the
human soul have never yet been
sounded. In its position n . wrecker
Of good morals, alcohol stands proud
~ eminent Few things are SO bad as
to have no good in them; but, aside
from certain properties available in
therapeutics, alcohol seems, in its i'm
pressions on the human organism. to
be singularly bad. In all its long and
dreary history, it has never been known
to add anything whatever to q mans
real character for piety, or sympathy,
or love to his family, or kindness to
his fellow-man.
Alcohol deadens the conscience of
anyone who partakes of it, let his mo-
tives in drinking be what they may. The
casual drinker often partakes of alcohol
without any clearly-defined purpose,
certainly without the slightest intent of
committing an unlawful act Yet the
poison affects him as it does others; it
paraiyzes his cons fence, the acuteness
peculiarly liable to be led into improper
and unlawful conduct The drinker is
deprived of intellectual soundness, as
well as moral capacity; and yet the
law says drunkenness is no excuse for
crime.
Shakespeare knew the deadly spell
that alcohol casts on morality:
III can fasten but one cup upon him
With that which he hath drunk tonight NJ
ready,
He'll be as full Of quarrel and onense
As my young mistress dog
saith honest Iago.'
1T appears to be q potential quality
of drunkenness to depress the moral ca
pacities, and thus foster the assaults of
temptation, whether it comes in the
guise of folly or of criminality. The
corruption of the moral system may be
observed in the small vices of drunken
ness as well as in the surprising turpi-
tude of its conspicuous outrages. The
crimes of drunkenness are not com
monty the outcome of premeditation
and brooding malovolence. The natural
offense against their exhibition and
activity, the nervous basis of the MOI al
constitution, is disabled. While this
nerve defect in drunkenness may, tc
sorae extent, be consistent with pre-.
meditation and malice in the commits
sion of crime, yet the very defect is the
more dangerous to society from the
fact that it is withdrawn from the
supervision of the rational mind.
"A person Intoxicated will commit
offenses in thought, in speech and in
conduct which in his sober moods he
would view with adherence. The ton.
dency of drunkenness is inevitably to-
ward crime"
Such are the effects resulting from
the use of alcohol. And the man who
INDUCES in it or hampers with it ex.
poses himself to these dangers He is
liable to become a raving maniac or a
ferocious brute, making his home a
hell and his existence q curse to all
around him.
AS John Bright justly says:
ITO drink deeply-to be drunk-is q
sin; this is not denied. At what point
does the taking of strong drink become
sin? We suppose man perfectly
sober; one glass excites him, and to
some extent disturbs the state of so
briefly, and so far destroys it; another
glass excites him still more; a third
fires his eye, loosens his tongue, in
flames his passions; fourth increases
all this; fifth makes him foolish and
partially insane; q sixth makes him
savage; a seventh or eighth makes him
stupid-a senseless, degraded man. But
when does the sin begin? At the first
step toward complete intoxication or
At the sixth, seventh or eighth? Is not
every step from the natural state OF
= the system toward the state of stupid
intoxication an advance in sin and a
yielding to the unwearied tempter of
the soul?"-Alienist aid Necrologist.