cause.

Peace has been restored to a large number of families, into which the destroyer had entered; many have abandoned the traffic, and a healthful public sentiment has been created. But the volcano still burns, and the fiery waves of alcohol still roll over the cities and villages of our country. Law still legalizes the demoralizing traffic; and the manufacturer and vender ply their dreadful trade with an activity and success which might make an angel weep. Broken-hearted wives and mothers are shedding their unavailing tears, over husbands brutalized, and sons ruined, for both worlds. In the windows of countless dram-shops the tempting beverage is displayed, to allure the unsuspecting youth; elegant saloons, fitted up in the most costly and attractive manner, draw crowds of young men within their fatal precincts; the steamboat has its bar; and the table of the ocean steamer sparkles with wines and brandies. Intemperance spreads her lures everywhere, and numbers her victims by hundreds of thousands. Even at weddings and social gatherings the wine-cup circulates; and the fair hands of the blushing maiden present the envenomed glass to the lips of her betrothed-a deed she is destined to rue, when she finds herself "that hapless thing, a drunkard's wife." With such facts before his eyes, he who attempts to warn the young of their dangers, would leave his work but half accomplished, should he pass on without raising a note of warning here. I shall proceed to call your attention to a few facts, concerning the nature and

effects of intoxicating liquors, and the immorality of the traffic in them.

Alcohol is a poison, and consequently destructive of health and life.*

Its first effect on the system, is a quickening of action-animation, excitement. This, by a fundamental law of our nature, is a source of pleasure. This present pleasure men mistake for real good. It also arouses for a moment the reserved and dormant energies of the system, which are not needed, and were not designed for ordinary healthful action, but were intended to be kept for special emergencies, and which cannot be drawn out and used, on ordinary occasions, without necessarily shortening human life. This awakening of dormant energy, men mistake for an increase of real, permanent strength.

Yet as it gives present pleasure, and appears sometimes to increase strength, a motive is hereby created to drink it.

It sometimes also appears to remove trouble,and this is another motive to take it. A man's wife, in the State of New-York, was seized with the cholera, and he was in trouble. She died, and he drank alcohol. Under its influence, he took her by the hair of her head, and in high glee dragged her body across the floor, and tumbled it into the coffin. It seemed to remove trouble,and, even under the most trying circumstances, to

"Permanent Temperance Documents," from which most of the following remarks are taken.

occasion mirth; but the mirth of the wicked is short, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Yet, as the mirth is real, and is occasioned by alcohol, it presents a motive to drink it. And thousands do drink it on this account.

It sometimes also seems to remove even poverty; and to increase riches, and other desirable things.

A number of gentlemen in the State of NewYork, assembled to consult upon the worth of certain parcels of land, which were to be offered at public sale. After due consideration, they concluded unanimously, that the lands were not worth over a certain sum, and that they would not sell for more. At the time appointed, they attended the sale. No one offered more than what was considered by men, when they were not poisoned, to be the worth of the property. The owner would not sell it at that price. He invited the men to his house, and gave them alcohol and water, sweetened and prepared in such a manner as to be palatable. After partaking of it, they repaired again to the sale, and one of those very men, who is now a highly respectable man, felt so much richer than he did before, the property appeared to be so much more valuable, and it appeared to him so much more important that he should have it, that he bid, and actually gave more than four times as much as he, or any other man, when not poisoned, thought the land to be worth, or was willing to give for it. The above account the writer of this had from the man himself. A vendue-master, in Connecticut, in giving

an account of such cases, said, "I have often, in this way, gotten more than ten times the worth of the spirits which I furnished."

Let us now look a moment at some of the reasons why men who begin to drink alcohol, not only continue to drink it, but continue also to increase the quantity.

The system, by this poison, having been overexcited, becomes deranged; and having been overworked, without any new strength being communicated, it is of course weakened, and therefore soon flags, becomes tired, and is exhausted. Now, according to another fundamental law, there is pain, languor, and inexpressible uneasiness spread through the system, as suffering nature, under the awful abuse which has been practised upon her, cries out for help. A man cannot thus chafe, irritate, and exhaust his system, and not afterwards feel uneasiness, any more than he can put his hand into the fire and not feel pain. He violates a law established by God; and must find the way of transgressors to be hard. Hence arise two motives to drink again. One is, to obtain the past pleasure, and the other is, to remove the present pain. But as the system is unstrung, and partly worn out, and is also lower down than it was before, the same quantity will not the next time raise it up so high, nor cause the wearied organs to move so briskly. Of course it will not fully answer the purpose; will not give so much present pleasure, or produce so much effect as before.

There is another principle which tends also strongly to the same result. The more any man partakes of this unnatural, forbidden, and guilty pleasure which alcohol occasions, the less susceptible he becomes of the natural and innocent pleasures occasioned by the use of nourishing food and drink, by the view and contemplation of the works of creation and Providence, by the exercise of the social affections, and the discharge of the various duties of life. It disinclines the mind to look at God, and incapacitates it, not only for the spiritual, but also for the natural pleasures, which his works and ways are adapted to afford. Hence a person under its power becomes more and more destitute of all enjoyment, except that of this mocker.

Let us now consider how it causes death. Alcohol is a substance which is in its nature unfit for the purposes of nutrition. It is not in the power of the animal economy to decompose it, and change it into blood, or flesh, or bones, or anything by which the human body is, or can be nourished, strengthened, and supported. When taken into the stomach, it is sucked up by absorbent vessels, and carried into the blood, and with that is circulated through the whole system, and, to a certain extent, is then thrown off again. But it is alcohol when taken, it is alcohol in the stomach, it is alcohol in the arteries, and veins, and heart, and lungs, and brain, and among all the nerves, and tissues, and fibres of the whole body; and it is alcohol, when,