TEMPERANCE.

1

§ 19. This word has reference to a state of health and content produced by a prudent restraint of appetites and to the practice of that restraint itself. Temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigour.' Says Burke, 'Our physical well-being, our moral worth, our social happiness, our political tranquillity, all depend on that control of all our appetites and passions which the ancients designated by the cardinal virtue of temperance.' The pleasures of integrity and

vitality are amply concerned to make up the pleasures of temperance::

Of all God's workes, which doe this worlde adorne,
There is no one more fair and excellent

Than is man's body both for powre and forme,
Whiles it is kept in sober government.' 3

If then temperance invigorates human faculties, we may note some of the advantages of such invigoration. In proportion as we awaken and invigorate men's faculties, we help them to rise above a brutal life; we take them out of the power of the present moment, enlarge their foresight; give them the means of success in life, open to them sources of innocent pleasure, and prepare them to bear part in respectable society." All our pleasures are increased, we are enabled to ensure a longer continuance of them, and our social advantages are augmented by the invigoration which temperance secures. In somewhat the same line is the testimony of Edward Baines:-I believe I have done more work, have had better spirits, have eaten my food with greater relish, and have slept more tranquilly than I should have done if I had habitually taken wine or beer.'s Pleasures of exercise, of vitality, of alimentation and of repose, are thus constituents of the pleasures of temperance. Similarly, with regard to high mental achievements (pleasures of movement and exercise also): 'It is the mighty minds that have grappled most successfully with the demonstrations of mathematical, intellectual, and moral science, that stand highest in the scale of mental acumen and power, and it is such minds that have found strict temperance in diet essential to their success. .. Few men have more fully established their

2 Letters on a Regicide Peace.

Letter III.

1 Addison. Spenser, Faerie Queene, Bk. II. Canto 64. W. E. Channing, On Temperance. • The Temperance Handbook, p. 699. London, 1871.

claims to intellectual superiority of a very high grade than that American theologian, President Edwards. But it was temperance alone that could carry him through such powerful mental efforts. 'Though of a delicate constitution, by the rules of temperance he enjoyed good health, and was enabled to pursue his studies thirteen hours a day,' etc. If therefore you wish for a clear mind, and strong muscles, and quiet nerves, and long life, and power prolonged in old age, permit me to say, although I am not giving a temperance lecture, avoid all drinks above water and mild effusions of that fluid, shun tobacco, opium, and everything else that disturbs the normal state of the system; rely upon nutritious food, and mild diluted drinks of which water is the base, and you will need nothing beyond these things except rest and due moral regulations of all your powers to give you long, happy, and useful lives, and serene evening at its close.' 2

§ 20. In order to a complete survey of the pleasures of temperance it would be necessary for us to observe the pains of intemperance, and probably the best illustrations of those pleasures are obtained by studying the opposite pains and conceiving the advantages of temperance to lie in immunity from those pains. We will not be able in our space to give more than a brief epitome of the ills of intemperance. The following is an excellent condensed description:-

'Here only by a cork controlled,

And slender wall of earthen mould,
In all the pomp of death, repose
The seeds of many a bloody nose;

The stammering tongue, the horrid oath ;
The fist for fighting nothing loth;
The giddy thought on mischief bent,
The midnight hour in riot spent ;
The passions which no word contain,
Which burst like sulphur into flame;
The nose carbuncled, glowing red;
The blackened eye, the broken head;
The tree that bears the deadly fruit
Of murdering, maiming, and dispute,
Assault that innocence assails;
The images of gloomy jails:

All these within this jar appear,
And Jack the hangman in the rear.'"

Temperance Handbook, p. 45.

2 Professor Silliman's Lecture.

3 Lines on a Stone Jar.

Anon.

Here again, to begin with, comes disintegration of the body; then follow the pains attendant upon aggression and conflict, namely disintegration, irritation, inability to move (confinement), social opprobrium and death.

Robert MacNish, in his Anatomy of Drunkenness,' particularly mentions the disorders to which drunkenness leads; they are all comprised under the heads of disintegration, prostration, irritation, and sexual denial. It injures and effects the functions of the liver, the stomach, the brain, the kidneys, the bladder, the blood, the lungs, the eyes, the skin; induces inflammations, gout, tremors, palpitation of the heart, hysteria; epilepsy, sterility, emaciation, corpulency, ulcers, melancholy, madness, and premature old age. Beyond these are all the ills within the departments of sexuality and society. As regards the former, the deleterious effects of intemperance upon domestic happiness may be referred to; and as bearing upon the latter more especially I will quote the heads. of a lecture on The Evils of Intemperance,' by Dr. Lyman Beecher :

1. The effects of intemperance upon the health and physical energies of a nation are not to be overlooked, or lightly esteemed.'

2. The injurious influence of general intemperance upon national intellect is equally certain and not less to be deprecated.'

3. The effect of intemperance upon the military powers of a nation cannot but be great and evil.'

4. The effect of intemperance upon the patriotism of a nation is neither obscure nor doubtful.'

5. Upon the national conscience or moral principle the effects of intemperance are deadly. It obliterates the fear of the Lord and a sense of accountability, paralyses the power of conscience, hardens the heart, and turns out upon society a sordid, selfish, ferocious animal.'

6. Upon national industry the effects of intemperance are manifest and mischievous.'

7. The effects of intemperance upon civil liberty may not be lightly passed over.'

In the terms health and physical energies' primary pleasures are indicated; under intellectual energy and activity we find movement, exercise, and nervous vitality. So also under 'military powers' with the superadded predatory pleasures (alimentation); 1 Boston, 1852.

movement and exercise explain industry,' while pleasures of patriotism and conscience have direct reference to the social feelings, devotion to, interest in, and fear of others. Likewise the pleasures of society, and of movement and exercise, are the pleasures of liberty. Thus, from observing the evils of intemperance, we bring into view more sharply the opposite pleasures of temperance, and here as elsewhere find nothing but primary feelings.

THINKING.

§ 21. Thinking is mental activity. We can only judge of the pleasure of thinking in itself by our horror at the thought of annihilation or of idiocy. Entire absence of thinking is absence of consciousness, and if we had no consciousness we should have no pain; whatever pleasure there is in thinking, as such, is the pleasure of life as contrasted with the pain of death, and this contrast we shall make in the next chapter. What we ordinarily understand by the pleasures of thinking are represented pleasurable experiences. They are not a new kind of pleasurable experiences, but are repetitions of pleasurable experiences of the same kind. If we are thinking of action, the pleasure is the represented pleasure of that action; if of repose the pleasure is the represented pleasure of repose. If we have in mind a feast, our delight is a represented delight of alimentation; if we are ideally contemplating a sunset, our joy is the represented joy of seeing a sunset. Our pleasure is not then a pleasure of thinking as distinguished from not thinking, since we have no experience of either pleasure or pain as appertaining to the latter; but a pleasure in some thinking over some other thinking, or, as has just been remarked, a pleasure in representing pleasurable experiences. In equal measure the pain of thinking is a pain of represented painful experiences. The pain of long continued thinking or concentration upon some train of thought is the pain of irritation and prostration. On the other hand, the pleasures of studying are the pleasures of movement and exercise; society, repose, and, in representative association, all the pleasures that knowledge brings. Whatever pleasures mental discipline furthers and secures may be associated with the pleasures of thinking; and in putting this enlarged sense upon the term we shall pass into the region of the tertiary feelings.

GENTLE SPEECH AND DEMEANOUR.

§ 22. Among the primary appetitive cravings of human nature is that for the amicable presence of other human beings; man has a yearning for society. Whatever then conduces to satisfy this want is desirable and pleasurable. In such a case are found gentle speech and demeanour; their pleasures are eminently social, and have their root in the primitive pleasure of society.

The prevailing idea of this stanza is that the greatest pleasures are apt to flee away, and among them the social; that hence gentleness as a preservative and augmenting force to such joys is worthy of all praise. In its effect it is as light in darkness.

That gentleness of speech and demeanour are pleasures which have their origin in and derive their force from society, sufficiently appears in the consideration that the terms have no relevancy whatever, except on the supposition of the presence of others. The advantages of such a demeanour accrue either to the one practising it with reference to others, or to one receiving it from others about us; these will be considered presently: the utilities to the one receiving it are the general pleasures of society.

The term gentlemanliness' includes many and varying qualities. Perhaps the following quotations express the chief of them; their social character is very evident. The gentleman is never unduly familiar; takes no liberties; is chary of questions; is neither artificial nor affected; is as little obtrusive upon the mind or feelings of others as on their persons; bears himself tenderly towards the weak and unprotected, is not arrogant, cannot be supercilious, can be self-denying without struggle, is not vain of his advantages, extrinsic or personal; habitually subordinates his lower to his higher self; is, in his best condition, electric with truth, buoyant with veracity.'2 To be humble-minded, meek in spirit, but bold in thought and action; to be truthful, sincere,