... Genius may have its
poetical and imaginative powers stored up into fitful paroxysms by
alcohol, no doubt: the control of will being gone or going, the mind
is left to take ideas as they come, and they may come brilliantly for
a time. But, at best, the man is but a revolving light. At one time a
flash will dazzle you; at another, the darkness is as that of
midnight; the alternating gloom being always longer than the period of
light, and all the more intense by reason of the other's brightness.
While imagination sparkles, reason is depressed. And, therefore, let
the true student eschew the bottle's deceitful aid. He will think all
the harder, all the clearer, and all the longer!"
_Alcohol: its Place and Power_. 866, p. 122.
MR. R. A. PROCTOR, F. R. S.
"I would venture to add an expression of my own firm conviction that
a life of study is aided by the almost entire avoidance of
stimulants, alcoholic as well as nicotian, I do not say that the
moderate use of such stimulants does harm, only that so far as I can
judge from my own experience it affords no help. I recognise a slight
risk in what Abbe Moigno correctly states--the apparent power of
indefinite work which comes with the almost entire avoidance of
stimulants; but the risk is very slight, for the man must have very
little sense who abuses that power to a dangerous degree. Certainly,
if the loss of the power be evidence of mischief, I would say (still
speaking of my own experience, which may be peculiar to my own
temperament) that the use of stimulants, even in a very moderate
degree, is mischievous.
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