But as I have
never tried the experiment in using either alcohol or tobacco, and
cannot afford to do it, I have no comparative experience to offer. It
might be beneficial; I do not believe it would, and prefer not to risk
the chance. _Fiat experimentum in corpore viliore_.
J. A. H. MURRAY.
March 2, 1882.
MR. D. CHRISTIE MURRAY.
I should have thought that the universal experience of mankind had
already been set on record without much ambiguity. It has been my
practice to smoke at work, and I do not think I could get along
without tobacco now, unless I made an effort, the profit of which
could scarcely justify the pains. As a matter of nature, I do not
believe that a man works either better or worse for the use of
tobacco, unless he smokes so much as to injure his general health.
Alcoholic drinks are, of course, mentally as well as physically
stimulative, and I have found them useful at a pinch. But everybody
knows that stimulants are reactionary, and it is pretty certain that
in the end they take more out of a man than they put into him. Under
extraordinary pressure they have their uses, but their habitual
employment muddles the faculties, and the last state of the man who
constantly works on them is worse than the first. Continually taken
alone, and as a stimulant to mental exertion, their influences on a
man of average formation are fatal. But I should have thought all
these things settled long ago, unless it were in junior debating
societies.
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