WINE-DRINKING IN MARS.
I went downstairs the next morning before the doctor was ready, and when
I met Thorwald I said, without thought: “A fine morning.”
“Yes,” he replied, “all our mornings are fine. I do not mean that the
sun is always shining or that we do not have clouds and a variety of sky
effects, but we know the clouds can be depended on not to give rain till
night.”
“Do you not lose something by having a perpetual calm?” I asked. “For
I understand the rain in the night comes only in gentle showers. In our
rough world some of us enjoy the grandeur of the storm.”
“How about those who are exposed to its fury?” asked Thorwald in reply.
“I do not see how anyone can really enjoy what is sure to be bringing
sorrow or even inconvenience to others. Could a mother take pleasure in
a tempest if she knew her son was in danger of shipwreck from it? Why
should it change her feeling to know her son was by her side and that it
was only strangers that were in danger?”
“But,” continued Thorwald, “are you and your friend ready for an
excursion to-day? If you are, I propose to give you a new experience.”
“We shall be delighted to accompany you, and as I see breakfast is ready
I will go up and tell the doctor to hurry.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” exclaimed Thorwald. “You must try to learn to
live as we do, and you will remember I said the other day that we are
never in haste. If, for example, it were Zenith who was late, I should
never think of calling to her to hurry, for I should know she must have
a good excuse for staying. Her liberty of action is as valuable to her
as mine to me, and however long she might keep me waiting, I should
feel sure that her action was the result of right motives and correct
reasoning. If the doctor does not appear, we can easily postpone
our excursion to to-morrow. There would be no lack of occupation for
to-day.”
“What a delightful feeling it must be,” I said, “to be always free from
hurry. It is the commonest experience in our imperfect state for one to
start a few minutes late in the morning, and then be on a constant jump
all day to make them up. One of the evils of our driving age is the
wear and tear of our nerves in what we consider a necessary haste to get
there.”
“Get where?” asked Thorwald.
“To get anywhere or to do anything that we set out to accomplish,” I
answered.
“I fear,” said Thorwald, “that I have talked too much about Mars and
not insisted enough on hearing about the earth. Suppose something should
happen to break off your visit?”
“You wouldn’t miss much, Thorwald.”
“We certainly should regret exceedingly not learning many things that
you could tell us,” he said.
“Yes,” I answered, “but you cannot profit by our experiences, while we
of the earth are in a condition where we need all the help and advice
you have for us. If we ever return to our home we want to tell all about
your advanced civilization and how you have overcome the evils that vex
our race. But I wonder why the doctor doesn’t come. I think I will go
and see, but I promise not to interfere with his liberty of action.” I
soon returned with my friend, and we all went to breakfast. The doctor
said he would not eat much, as he felt somewhat indisposed. Here was
something new in the life of this household, and each one began to
express sympathy and ask what could be done. The doctor was amused, and
I said I thought a good, hearty breakfast would make him all right. But
Thorwald insisted that something unusual should be done, although his
inexperience was so great that nothing feasible suggested itself at
first. Zenith was in favor of all repairing to the library, hunting
up the histories of the days when people were ill, and finding out
the proper remedy for his ailment. This would have been a logical
proceeding, but I thought to myself that they did not understand the
value of time in such cases and that the doctor would probably either
recover or die while they were at work.
As I did not appear to be any more alarmed than my companion was, the
excitement soon subsided. But Thorwald was not satisfied yet, and after
some further thought his face brightened and he asked me if a glass of
good wine would not be the thing for the doctor. When I replied that it
would probably not hurt him, Thorwald told his son to go and bring up a
bottle of the oldest wine in the cellar, and soon not only the patient
but the members of the family and myself were all partaking. No more was
heard after this of the doctor’s indisposition, and Thorwald no doubt
felicitated himself that he had effected a cure. The situation was
rather suggestive to me, and while we were drinking, and eating our
breakfast, I could not refrain from saying:
“If some of our friends on the earth could see us now, Thorwald,
we would be discredited in all that we might say about your higher
condition. It would do no good to expatiate on your ripe character
and on your attainments in knowledge and virtue. I fear they would not
believe much of it if they knew that you not only drank wine yourselves,
but encouraged its use by giving it to your guests.”
“Why,” said Thorwald, “you could tell them the wine was brought out to
be used as a medicine, and that the rest of us drank to keep the doctor
company. But when you see your friends you had better tell them the
truth at once, that while we all take wine here frequently this is the
only instance where I have ever known it to be used medicinally.”
“They would tell us,” said the doctor, “that you have made one mistake
at least, and that it is a dangerous thing to have wine in the house,
and especially to give it to children.”
“He would have a very gross and imperfect conception of our character,”
said Thorwald, “who should have the thoughts which you express. I can
judge something of the nature of the feeling which you say exists on the
earth, however, for only a few days ago I was reading a full account of
the different temperance movements on our planet. Few subjects in our
history are more interesting. Do not despise the temperance reformers,
and if you think they are sometimes too radical you can afford to excuse
that for the sake of the absolute good they accomplish. All through
the early part of our career there was a perpetual warfare against the
drinking habit. At first wine was an ordinary article of food, and in
some countries more commonly used for drinking than water. There was
much abuse of it, but in general people used it as a matter of course,
without thinking they were any more responsible for the drunkards than
they were for the intemperate in eating. But the evil of overdrinking
increased, and some religious reformers found that the easiest way
to check it was to forbid all use of intoxicants. Here is an extreme
example that I have read of what one such reformer taught: ‘If a single
drop of alcoholic liquor should fall into a well one hundred and fifty
feet deep, and if the well should afterwards be filled up and grass grow
over it, and a sheep should eat of the grass, then my followers must
not partake of that mutton.’ Could any of your prohibitionists be more
radical than that?
“In later times many kinds of strong and poisonous drinks were made,
and untold harm was done by their use. Drunkenness was the most fruitful
source of crime and misery; it, more than any other cause, filled the
jails, the almshouses and the insane asylums; it kept men in poverty
and squalor; it scattered families and changed men, and sometimes women,
too, into beasts. No class or profession was free from the evil, for
it disqualified the scholar and statesman for their duties just as it
unfitted the laborer for his daily task. It helped to debauch politics
and public morals, while it brought disgrace and ruin to private
reputation and character. More money was lost by it than was spent to
educate and Christianize the world, and it cost more precious lives than
war and pestilence combined. Being a crime utterly selfish and debasing,
as well as extremely tenacious of its hold upon the individual life, it
was almost the greatest enemy to the spread of the gospel.
“Was there anything in the way of good to be said of the drinking habit
to offset all this harm? Men drank to be sociable and companionable and
to please their friends, and when the habit was fastened on them found
they had lost every friend of value. They took to their cups to drown
their sorrow, and found a sorrow more poignant among the dregs. They
began the moderate use of stimulants to give strength to the body or
activity to the brain, and discovered when too late that their abuse
had brought down in common ruin both body and mind. No, it is impossible
that anyone should ever attempt to make an argument in favor of
drunkenness.
“The more active the age the more prevalent was this evil, but
the greater, also, was the determination to overthrow it. When the
conscience was quickened by the growth of Christianity and men’s lives
became more valued, many persistent efforts were made to stamp out the
crime of intoxication.
“Numerous societies were organized and good men and women entered
heartily into the work. Every argument was used to show the danger of
the drink habit and to teach the beauty and value of sobriety, appeal
being made both to the reason and the conscience. The power of the state
was invoked and punishment administered to the drunkards, while the
manufacture and sale of intoxicants were restricted and sometimes
prohibited. We see how firm a hold this evil had on all classes when we
read that very often public sentiment would not permit these beneficent
laws to be enforced. In all great reforms the apathy of a large part of
the people has been a most discouraging feature.
“Of course it was never intrinsically wrong to drink a glass of wine,
but in view of the enormous amount of sorrow and trouble caused by
overdrinking, can it be wondered at that many earnest souls came to
abhor everything in the nature of intoxicating drink, and to practice
and insist on total abstinence? Oh, I can tell you if I lived on the
earth now I should be a radical of the radicals on this subject.”
“Notwithstanding which,” said I, “here you are sitting at your own table
and pouring into our glasses this delicious wine.”
As a smile passed around at this remark it was Zenith who said:
“Do you see anything incongruous in that?”
I paused a moment to choose a reply, when the doctor spoke up with:
“Far be it from us, Zenith, with our earth-born ideas, to even seem to
pass judgment in this happy place, but I presume my companion was trying
to imagine what our temperance friends, who do not know you, would say.”
“As for us,” said Thorwald, “I trust we shall be justified in your eyes
at least, before we are through, but let us inquire about those whom you
call your temperance friends. I suppose they would have a poor opinion
of a man who was loud in his public advocacy of temperance and yet drank
wine at home.”
“I think,” I replied, “that I have heard some such term as ‘hypocrite’
applied to men of that class.”
“And yet,” continued Thorwald, “they would think it perfectly proper for
a man to keep razors away from his children, but at the same time have
one or more concealed about the house somewhere for his own use. It
might very easily be argued that razors were dangerous things under any
conditions; the children might find them by accident and do great harm
to themselves or others; the man himself, though accustomed to their
moderate use, might, in a moment of overconfidence, go too far and
inflict a serious injury on himself or even a fatal one; and, further,
it might be said that razors are of no real use to men, for nature knows
best what is needed for protection, and if hair on the face was not
necessary for the well-being of man it would not grow there. This
argument could be pushed until, under an awakened public sentiment, the
manufacture and sale of razors might be prohibited.
“I have said this to introduce a plea for tolerance of opinion. You were
created, I have no doubt, as we were, with different temperaments and
inclinations, which, with various kinds of education, produce different
opinions. You cannot all have the same mind on any given subject, nor
all approve of the same methods of reform, but you will make but little
progress in true temperance until you can bury minor differences and
all work together. You must learn that everything that has been made,
whether produced by the direct hand of God or through the agency of man,
has its proper use. Do you say that some people would express the wish
that everything intoxicating could be destroyed from the earth, as
having no proper use? All the evil in it will surely be removed, but the
good will remain. At present it is one of the stubborn obstructions in
your thorny path. If your way were to be suddenly made smooth and easy
your race would never learn self-denial, the only road that leads to a
higher state. Your present imperfect life is a daily conflict, and it is
only by battles won and temptations overcome that you will ever be built
up into virtuous and God-like characters.
“I said you must be tolerant. I can conceive that a man might feel
perfectly safe in the use of wine and have no scruples of any kind
against it, and yet be sincere in urging people in general to totally
abstain from it on account of the harm some might receive. This man must
not be denied a place in the temperance ranks. Another might think it a
sin to touch a drop. One might believe the only right way to deal with
the subject would be to prohibit the sale entirely, another would think
more might be done by some other method of restriction. All that I have
read of our experiences goes to prove that the people of the earth
will never drive out this evil till all shades of temperance people get
Christianity enough into their hearts to unite on a broad platform and
work as one army with a single purpose.”
“Will you not tell us,” I asked, “how the reform was finally effected on
Mars?”
“Like all other true reforms,” replied Thorwald, “it came about through
the sanctified commonsense of the church of God, not suddenly by any
means, but gradually and only after many years of severe struggle.
A combined effort of all good people, especially women, working with
spiritual as well as moral weapons, produced an impression which was
lasting. When men were taught from their childhood the dangers which
accompany the drinking habit; when one class of people denied themselves
all indulgence for the sake of the class who were weak; when drinking
became a disgrace, and those who could not keep sober were taken in
charge by the state and permanently separated from the rest of the
community; when the church awoke to its full duty and the rich poured
out their money; when men and women forgot fashion and pride and caste
in their love for the practical work of Christianity; when the power of
the gospel had strengthened men’s will and had begun to plant in
every heart a love for something purer than fleshly appetite; when the
spiritual part of our nature began to gain the ascendency and to occupy
the place for which it was made; then intemperance loosed its hold and
soon disappeared, never to trouble us again.
“You see it was a long road with us and I have no doubt it will prove
so on the earth, but do not on that account lose courage. And let me
counsel both of you to join the ranks of the reformers when you get
home.
“Although intemperate drinking has long been unknown among us, as well
as all other gross imperfections of character, we still make good wine,
and no more danger is felt in drinking it than in using milk. Everybody
can have all he wants of it. Our tables may be supplied with the
luxuries of every clime, but we have learned that it is best for us to
be temperate in both eating and drinking. I am sorry your temperance
friends, as you say, would not approve of us, but when you see them
I trust you will do what you can to let them understand that such
temptations as this of which we have been speaking belong to the
childhood of a race, and that the people of Mars have long since passed
out of infancy.”