Washington sentinel., 1899-01-21

While mans desires ana passions StHs
He cannot choose but err"
Prohibition was first tested in the
Garden # Eden-and failed. The fall
Of man and his free agency were 1he
results. All the imperfections OF our
moral nature are, according to the
Scripture, consequences of this hrst
failure of prohibition; for had not Eve
plucked and eaten the forbidden fruit
man would be perfect AS IT is, we are
ioredoomed to sin and suffer for SHINING,
but we are free agents.
The term prohibition is not OF course,
used here in connection with drink
although many eminent writer's would
have us believe that the forbidden irnit
was OF an inebriating quality. In prin-
ciple there is no difference between
"Thou shalt not eat this" and Thou
shalt not drink that" It is sufficiently
significant that taking biblical view Of
the matter-and that is the view which
such good Christians as our prohlol
tionists are, should take-all human
misery began with the first failure Of
man to submit to prohibition. And 1t
is still more significant that the man
whom the Creator selected as the
propagator of his species after the
deluge, first exhibited the defects OF his
moral nature by drinking to intoxication'
Prohibition and its failure ars, then,
as old as mankind. Intemperance, and
the laws against it are of nearly equal
antiquity,
That intemperance must have pre-
vailed to a great extent among the
ancient Hebrews is sufficiently clear
from the story the Bible tells us of Lot
and others, and from the tact that Moses
thought it necessary to promulgate
restrictive laws against inebriety.
The Egyptians were strongly addicted
to the use of wine and beer, and intern
perance was common with both sexes.
At the time of the Pharaohs laws were
enacted against drinking excesses. and
it was then the custom to place skele'
ton and funeral draperies upon the
festive board whenever the jewellers
threatened to transgress the ordinary
limits of hilarity.
In the year 27oo B. c., the Chinese
Emperor Yute banished the inventor Of
rice wine from his realm, and prohibited
the use of that intoxIcant, but without
success Grape wine. which was known
in China as early as II27 B. c., was also
prohibited in subsequent centuries,
partly for economic. partly for political
reasons-the apprehension OF lack OF
cereals being at the bottom of the
former. the fear of revolution at the root
of the latter. This prohibition, accom-
panied by the destruction Of all vine
yards, drove the Chinese people back
to the use of the stronger rice wine and
Of opium.
Drunkenness was not unknown either
in ancient Greece or in ancient Rome.
Lycurgus imagined that he could cur b
the desires of his Spartans by exhibiting
to them, on fixed days of the year, a
number Of intoxicated islanders, who
had been made to drink to excess by his
order. His efforts seem to have been
put forth in vain, however. In Athens,
according to the laws OF Draco and Of
Solon, death was the punishme Mt Of
those who walked the public streets in
a state of intoXication. Unlike our
hvpersentlmentalists of temperance pro-
clivitie S, who hold intoxication to be an
excuse for crime, Pittacus of MYtilene
caused a double measure of punishment
to be inflicted for all crimes committed
under the influence OF intoxicants. Plato
forbade the use of wine by minors under
eighteen years Of age, but granted all
possible latitude to men of forty years
Of age, to whom he recommended ire
quent indulgence, encouraging them to
abandon themselves to the joys Of the
banquet, to invite Bacchus to partake,
and bring with him that divine liquor
which he gave to man as panacea with
which to restore the vivacity Of youth,
sweeten the austerity Of age, dispel its
sorrows and molliiy its harshuess,
The drinking bouts OF the ancient
Romans excelIed by fer those Of the
Greeks. What must have been thought
OF drunkenness during the reign of
Tiberius may be inferred from the fact
that this emperor, surnamed Biberius
Cthe bibber), appointed Pison Project of
Rome for having passed two days and
nights with him at the drinking board,
witnessing the feats oi Inglorious Novel
Illus Torquatus, who was surnamed
Tricongius from his ability to swallow
three congii (about three quarts) Of wine
in one draught. Long before the reign
OF Tiberius snmptuaTY laws had been
enacted, but they failed to check the evil.
The Gauls were no more distinguished
for sobriety than their neighbors' A
radical measure, not unlike that advo-
Gated by our prohibitionists, was carried
out under Domitian Tin the year 97),
when the ruler ordered all the vineyards
in Gaul to be destroyed. Beer then
a gain took the place Of wine.
The most striking illustration of the
perniciousness OF prohibition is that
which the history of the Mahometans
offers, The rigIdly faithful observe d
the Injunction OF Mahomet with refer
euce to wine, but their cravings for
stimuIant led them to the excessive use
of olopium-incomparably more destruc
tive of moral and physical well-beinR
than the strongest and worst liquors
While the faithful obey the prohibitorS
law from religious motives, the un
believers ignore it, and resort to innum
erable devices by which to evade tbs
introductory decree; and those who
drink intoxcants must necessarily