A little drink seems safe at first, But soon begets a raging thirst, From small and distant streams, -"TEMPERANCE RECITER." Abstinence requires no aid to accomplish it. Our own will is all that is requisite and if we have not the will to avoid contempt, disgrace and misery, we deserve neither relief nor compassion. -COBBETT. The Spartans are mentioned as inculcating sobriety on their children by exposing to their notice the behaviour of their slaves in a drunken fit. They thought that were they to apply wholly to the reason of their youths, it might be to little purpose: as the force of the arguments, which they used, might not be sufficiently apprehended, or the impression thereof might be soon effaced but when they made them frequently eyewitnesses of all the madness and absurdities, and at length the perfect senselessness, which the immoderate draught occasioned, the idea of the vile change would be so fixed in the minds of its beholders, as to render them utterly averse from its cause. A people who have few tastes and amusements, and who live in a gloomy, depressing, inclement climate, are not likely to be sober if they have many long hours of leisure at their disposal. * * * A multiplication of such tastes (a healthy variety of tastes) and of corresponding amusements, is one of the best ways of combating intemperance. If men find other pleasures that satisfy them, they will be much less likely to turn to drink. This is one of the ways in which popular education, even apart from all direct moral teaching, has a moralising effect. Every institution which cultivates habits of forethought and saving, and stimulates ambition among the working classes, acts in the same direction. -LECKY. The ease which liquor gives, is but that of a dream; when we awake, we are again ourselves; we are in the same situation as before, or, perhaps, in a worse. What then is to be the next step? Soon as the stupifying effects of one draught are gone off, another must be taken; the sure consequence of which is, that such a habit of drinking will be contracted, as we shall vainly endeavour to conquer, though the original inducement. to it should no longer subsist. To guard against this, as it is of the utmost importance to all of us, so the only certain way is, by stopping in the very first instance; by never seeking, either under care or pain, relief from what we drink, but from those helps, which reason and religion furnish: the only ones, indeed, to which we can wisely resort in any straits; and which are often found capable of extricating us, when our condition seems the most desperate. Idleness has been not unfitly termed the parent of all vices; but none it more frequently produces than drunkenness; as no vice can make a greater waste of our time, the chief thing about which the idle are solicitous. On the other hand, he who can profitably busy, or innocently divert himself, has a sure resort in all humours he has his spirits seldom depressed, or when they are so, he can, without any hazard, recruit them-he is so far from seeking a correspondence with such, as are always in a readiness to engage in schemes of intemperance and riot, that he shuns them; his amusements quite different from theirs, occasion him to be seldom with them, and secure him from being corrupted by them. This we may lay down as a most certain truth, that our virtue is never safe, but when we have proper diversions. Unbent we sometimes must be, and when we know not how to be so in an innocent way, we soon shall be in a guilty. But if we can find full entertainment in what is free from all reproach, in what neither has anything criminal in it, nor can lead us into what is criminal; then, indeed, and only then, can we be thought in little danger, and not likely to yield to the bad examples surrounding us. -DEAN BOLTON. To rescue men, we must act on them inwardly or outwardly. We must either give them strength within to withstand the temptations to intemperance, or we must remove these temptations without. We must increase the power of resistance, or diminish the pressure which is to be resisted. Both modes of influence are useful, but the first incalculably the most important. No man is safe against this foe, but he who is armed with moral force, with strength in his own soul, with the might of principle, and a virtuous will. The great means, then, of repressing intemperance in those portions of society which are most exposed to it, is to communicate to them, or awaken in them, moral strength, the power of self-denial, a nobler and more vigorous action of conscience, and religious principle. In other words, to save the labouring and poor from intemperance, we must set in action amongst them the means of intellectual, moral, and religious im provement. We must strive to elevate them as rational and moral beings, to unfold their highest nature. It is idle to think that, whilst these classes remain the same in other respects, they can be cured of intemperance. Intemperance does not stand alone in their condition and character. It is a part or sign of general degradation. It can only be effectually removed by exalting their whole character and condition. To heal a diseased limb, or organ, you must relieve and strengthen the whole body. So it is with the mind. The first means which I shall suggest of placing a people beyond the temptations to intemperance is to furnish them with the means of innocent pleasure. * * * * By innocent pleasures I mean such as excite moderately; such as produce a cheerful frame of mind, not boisterous mirth; such as refresh, instead of exhausting the system; such as occur frequently rather than continue long; such as send us back to our daily duties invigorated in body ard in spirit; such as we can partake in the presence and society of respectable friends; such as consist with, and are favourable to, a grateful piety; such as are chastened by self-respect, and are accompanied with the consciousness that life has a higher end than to be amused. In every community there must be pleasures, relaxations, and means of agreeable excitement; and if innocent ones are not furnished, resort will be had to criminal. Man was made to enjoy as well as to labour; and the state of society should be adapted to this principle of human nature. -REV. CHANNING. A SENSIBLE REFORM. It is a curious and not a bad sign of the times that several institutions called "British workman" are being opened. They are a sort of public house, minus the intoxicating department. The motto of the one opened is, "A public house without the drink, Where men can sit, talk, read, and think, My evening hours, words fail to tell The pleasures which they bring, As with the wife I love so well, While drunkards time and money spend, I'm seated by that loving friend, My own true heart at home. "TEMPERANCE RECITER." God keep me from four houses, a Usurer's, a Tavern, a 'Spital, and a Prison. Oh may thy counsels, mighty God, My roving feet command; That I may not forsake the road -"TEMPERANCE RECITER." OUT OF THE TAVERN. Out of the tavern I've just stepped to-night: |