The histories of all nations show that, in the infancy of society, man
has few wants. Food for the sustenance of life, clothing for the
covering of his person, and a habitation to shelter him from the wind
and the storm, form the chief objects of his desire; and these he is
easily enabled to supply from the rich storehouse of nature, which the
bountiful Creator has furnished for his use. The earth has never ceased
to reward the industry of man; and his daily necessities being thus
provided for, his future worldly wants occupy but a small share of his
thoughts.
As mankind multiply and associate together in cities and towns, their
attention is directed to other means of procuring the necessaries of
life. Trade, manufactures, and commerce offer ample opportunities for
the exercise of talent and industry; and the simplicity and contentment
of rural life are exchanged for a more artificial state of society. The
accumulation of property henceforth becomes an object of general
pursuit, and the busy mind of man is occupied in forming and digesting
plans to ensure such a result. Should prosperity attend his
undertakings, and crown his labours with increase, he will not be slow
in acquiring a taste for additional comfort and enjoyment, which his
improved circumstances have placed within his reach. Thus the wants of
man increase with his means of satisfying them. They are no longer
confined to the simple necessaries of life, but embrace those elegancies
and luxuries which owe their origin to the increase of wealth, the
refinement of education, and the intercourse of society. Surplus capital
thus finds ample and ready means of occupation in ministering to the
growing wants of the community. Various trades, arts and professions are
introduced, which open up new sources of employment; a stimulus is given
to industry, and the powers of the mind are brought into operation to
diffuse information and instruction through the land. Thus national
wealth, education, and refinement advance together; and the riches which
found entrance in one direction, find their way, through various
channels, to every ramification of society, as the blood which flows
from the heart circulates through every part of the human system.
So long as surplus wealth thus extends, and promotes a nation’s
prosperity, it is legitimately employed. But there are certain limits
within which it ought to be confined. The morality, intelligence, and
industry of the people are the bulwarks of national greatness; and if,
by the introduction of any article of luxury or common diet, these
barriers are weakened or thrown down, and the flood-gates of immorality,
ignorance, and idleness opened, their dark tide will begin to flow, and
threaten the best interests of the country. This result is shown by the
histories of all those nations which reached the summit of wealth and
power by the exercise of temperance, and whose downfall was hastened by
their intemperance, producing idle and licentious habits, discord,
effeminacy, and a spirit of dependence. Such were the Persians, the
Greeks, and the Romans.
Though there are distinctions of rank and station in society, there is a
mutual dependence throughout the community at large, similar to the
connexion existing among the members of the human body. “The eye cannot
say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the head to the feet, I
have no need of you.” The man whom wealth has exempted from the common
lot of humanity, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,” is as
dependent on the cultivator of the soil, the manufacturer, and the
mechanic, as they are upon him. Hence all in their several stations are
equally the guardians of the peace, happiness, and prosperity of the
nation to which they belong; and it becomes both their duty and their
interest, either to prevent the introduction of any traffic of an
injurious character, or to expel that from the land which may have been
found to have such a tendency.
The facility with which ardent spirits are obtained in this country,
cannot but be regarded as the cause of those habits of intemperance
which deface the fair page of our moral history. Drunkenness prevails to
a lamentable extent throughout the land, and is the fruitful source of
idleness, poverty, immorality, and crime. So far from being diminished,
it seems rather on the increase; and the fearful change which it has
wrought in the character of our artisans and labouring population, calls
for the adoption of some measure to arrest its course.
Ardent spirits are destructive of health, property, and morals; unfit to
be used by persons in health, being destitute of any nutritious quality;
and the traffic in them is injurious to the prosperity of the country.
Besides the misery which the use of them inflicts on individuals and
families, it greatly augments the national expenditure. It increases the
poor’s rates by increasing pauperism; it enhances the expense of
judicial proceedings by promoting crime; and our hospitals and lunatic
asylums are indebted to the same cause for by far the greater proportion
of their wretched inmates. If the money wasted in the purchase of this
worse than useless superfluity, were spent on articles of real utility,
a stimulus would be given to trade, manufactures, and commerce.
Such being the consequences of the traffic in ardent spirits, as proved
by incontrovertible evidence, the welfare of the nation calls for its
suppression. This must be accomplished, not by an appeal to the
legislature for an Act of Parliament to abolish the trade, but by
enlightened public opinion. If the community be convinced of the noxious
qualities of ardent spirit, and the vicious and immoral consequences to
which habits of drinking lead, they will cease to buy, and the traffic
must come to an end. But this object cannot be attained till the nation
rise as one man to crush this enemy to its happiness. This is the result
which the institutions called TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES aim to accomplish.
The means they employ is simply the diffusion of information through the
land, with a view to correct public opinion, and unite men and women in
the practice of total abstinence from distilled spirits as an article of
ordinary use. They act upon the well-established maxim that prevention
is better than cure; and their first solicitation is to gain the
countenance and support of the sober, temperate, respectable, and
influential classes of the community, whose combined example may operate
upon the mass of the population. Such being their principle and object,
they deserve the support and assistance of every friend to humanity and
every lover of his country.
* * * * *
In most quarrels there is a fault on both sides.—A quarrel may be
compared to a spark, which cannot be produced without a flint, as well
as a steel; either of them may hammer on wood for ever, no fire will
follow.
* * * * *
Learn of the little Nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.—POPE.
To this little fish we are said to be indebted for one of the grandest
and most useful inventions since the world began. It is thus
described:—It swims on the surface of the sea, on the back of its shell,
which exactly resembles the hull of a ship; it raises two feet like
masts, and extends a membrane between, which serves as a sail; the other
two feet are employed as oars. This fish is usually found in the
Mediterranean.
A DEVONSHIRE SKETCH.
BY THE LATE REV. JOHN MARRIOTT, OF BROADCLYST
Ye green hills of Devon! I love to look o’er ye;
The glow of your verdure refreshes my sight!
In the wild and majestic let Westmoreland glory;
But yours is the palm of more tranquil delight.
Not that robes of rich beauty, in which Nature dresses
Her features of boldness, your limits disown;
To him who could deem so, deep Lymouth’s recesses,
And Dart’s rocky borders, must all be unknown.
But your own proper boast is the Combe, neatly rounded,
Which preserves through all seasons its emerald hue;
Whilst the dews, o’er the uplands by which it is bounded,
Impart, in soft contrast, the mist’s tender blue;
Not deserted, though lonely: the vale in its centre,
Girt with Barn and rough Linhay, encloses a farm;
And o’er the warm nook of its deepest indenture,
The orchard’s fair bloom sheds its fugitive charm.
An eye little used to such leafy profusion,
Might fancy yon hedge-row one wide-waving wood;
And furze and plumed fern, as to aid the illusion,
Here and there on the tameness of culture intrude.
But wildest the mixture of shrub, bush, and bramble,
And sweetest the scent which the wild flowers breathe,
Where the birchen-banks mark the stream’s devious ramble,
And the ear drinks its musical murmurs beneath.
How soothing the sense of serenity stealing
O’er the mind, whilst on plenty and peace thus we gaze!
Less grateful, perhaps, though more lively, the feeling
Awaken’d by prospects that awe and amaze.
If in those we acknowledge the symbols of greatness;
If earth’s pillars its Maker’s omnipotence prove;
In these let us hail Him, “whose clouds distil fatness,”
And who crowneth the year with his goodness and love.