Under those
circumstances, "wine maketh glad the heart of man," and many find the
stimulus it gives pleasant,--perhaps dangerously so, unless the
lesson is soon learned that the point is very soon reached beyond
which mental vivacity is not increased but impaired.
"I must confess it seems to me that if we are to admit the necessity
or prudence of adopting total abstinence principles, because of the
miseries which have been caused by undue indulgence--if A, B, and C,
who have no desire to make beasts of themselves, are to refrain from
the social glass because X, Y, and Z cannot content themselves till
they have taken half-a-dozen social glasses too many--society has an
additional reason to be angry with the drunkards, and with those
scarcely less pernicious members of the social body who either cannot
keep sober without blue ribbons or pledges, or, having no wish to
drink, want everyone to know it. I admit, of course, if it really is
the case that the healthy-minded must refrain from the innocent use of
such stimulants as suit them, in the interest of the diseased, it may
be very proper and desirable to do so: but only in the same way that
it might be very desirable to avoid in a lunatic asylum the rational
discussion of subjects about which the lunatics were astray. For
steady literary or scientific work, however, and throughout the hours
of work (or near them), it is certain that for most men something very
close to total abstinence from stimulants is the best policy.
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