The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-12-13
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
The TESTIMONY OF HISTORY.

What has destroyed nations?
Drunkenness. Who are the enemies
of the State, wherever they exist?
Drunkards. Who have sapped the
foundations of freedom, and make it
degenerate into tyranny? Drunkards.
When Rome was in the very climax Of
republican strength and power; when
the last great contest approached,
and the question was to be decided
whether the Roman people were to
retain their precious republican lib
erty, won for them by the arm of a
Brutus, by the valor of Scipio. by the
virtue of Cato, by the integrity of
a Fabricius, and by the genius and
wisdom of a Cincinnatus; when it
was the question whether they should
retain their liberty or lose it, and bow
down their republican necks under a
yoke of the most CALLING kind-that
OF the Caesarism or the Imperialism
OF ancient Rome-what lost the
cause?
The Roman people looked to one
great hero as their champion; the
man who, as a general-the man who
as a statesman, stood pre-eminent;
the only man who could lift his intel
lectual brow and his mighty arm
against the schemes of Augustus
Caesar; that man was Marcus An
tonlus. He went with his army into
Egypt; he gave himself up to drunk
enness, and the debauchery that al
ways follows it. There, in Grand
Cairo, and in Alexandria, whilst he
was drinking his wine, night and day
sleeping his soul in the lees of wine
until it lost all sense of it's natural
bravery and love for republican free
dom-Augustus advanced upon him:
and, at the battle of Actium. it only
required one sweep of Caesars sword
to drive the poor, besotted, degraded
and unmanly Roman soldier from be-
fore him as coward!
A Curse to Nations.
What was the beginning of the ruin
OF that other republic, so celebrated
in story-the rival of Rome-imperiaI
Carthage? AS long as her people
were sober, as long as her armies
were sober, so long the Roman sol
diers-those invincible legions, that
had conquered the rest of the world
were unable to stand before the ter
rfble arms of Hannibal and of his
army. He marched down through
Italy; he crossed the Alps; he con-
quered nature herself; he stormed
the country; and by nothing but the
greatness of his own genius, and by
the bravery of his men.
No power could resist them. Every
city fell before them; until at length
these grand and terrible republican
soldiers went into winter quarters in
city in the south of Italy, called
Capua. There they remained, during
the months of the winter, drinking
the rich wines that grew upon the
plains of Naples, by the seashore, and
around the base of Mount Vesuvius.
There they remained, these men of
iron; and no sooner did they begin
to drink than their muscles and
nerves began to relax; their whole
corporal frame, their minds and
bodies, were so shattered that when
they came out to fight the Romans
again, the very first Roman army that
met them swept them from the field
as the whirlwind sweeps the chaff
from the threshing floor; for what
was easier for the Roman legions than
to crush and destroy an army of reel
ing, besotted, unmanly drunkards?
Go back farther into history: read
the history of all the great nations
that ever fiourished, and you will find
the same story, over and over again.
With the Modes, the Persians, the
Scythians, the Assyrians, and the Ar
menians, always the same story.
States fell; society was ruined whilst
Baltasar was sitting with his wine be-
fore him; while the proud Sardan-
apalus was locked up in his palace,
drowning his senses in debauchery.
In word, drink has been the curse
and ruin of whole nations, as history
asserts; ruin was invariably brought
down upon them by this sin, the most
detestable of all, the sin of drunken
ness.
Req. Thomas w. Burke. O. p