[1] Not in the day of thy drunkenness only dost thou undergo
the harm of drunkenness, but also after that day. And as
when a fever is passed by, the mischievous consequences of
the fever remain, so also when drunkenness is passed, the
disturbance of intoxication is whirling round both soul and
body. And while the wretched body lies paralysed, like the
hull of a vessel after a shipwreck, the soul yet more
miserable than it, even when this is ended, stirs up the
storm, and kindles desire; and when one seems to be sober,
then most of all is he mad, imagining to himself wine and
casks, cups and goblets.
And like as in a storm when the raging of the water has
ceased, the loss by reason of the storm remains; so
likewise here too. For as there of our freight, so here to
is there a casting away of nearly all our good things.
Whether it be temperance, or modesty, or understanding, or
meekness, or humility, which the drunkenness finds there,
it casts all away into the sea of iniquity.
But in what follows there is no more any likeness. Since
there, indeed, upon the casting out the vessel is
lightened, but here it is weighed down the more. For in its
former place of wealth it takes on board sand, and salt
water, and all the accumulated filth of drunkenness, enough
to sink the vessel at once, with the mariners and the
pilot.--_Chrysostom,_ 347-407.
[2] Thieves cannot steal land, unless they be Westminster Hall
thieves, crafty contenders that eat out a true title with a
false evidence; but the drunkard robs himself of his lands.
Now he dissolves an acre, and then an acre, into the pot,
till he hath ground all his ground at the malt-quern, and
run all his patrimony through his throat. Thus he makes
himself the living tomb of his forefathers, of posterity.
He needs not trouble his sick mind with a will, nor
distrust the fidelity of executors. He drowns all his
substance at the ale-fat, and though he devours much, is
the leaner every way. Drunkenness is a costly sin. It is
like gunpowder, many a man is blown up by it. He throws his
house so long out as windows, till at last his house throws
him out of doors. This is a tippler's progress: from luxury
to beggary; from beggary to thievery; from the tavern to
Tyburn; from the alehouse to the gallows.--_Adams,_ 1653.