" This answer excited Mr. Carpenter's
curiosity, and he inquired of the violinist why he would have it when
he came off in preference to having it before his work commenced, and
the reply was, "If I take stimulants before I go to work, the
_perception of the fingers is blunted,_ and I don't feel that
nicety and delicacy of touch necessary to bring out the fine tones
requisite in this piece of music, and therefore I avoid them." "But to
touch these things is dangerous, "says Mr. Hubert Bancroft, though
less dangerous to touch them _after_ work than _before_
work. The most careful man is sometimes thrown off his guard, and
drinks more than his usual allowance. It is, Mr. Watts believes, an
admitted fact that even people who are considered strictly temperate
habitually take more than is good for them. What quantity _is_
good for every man, no one can say with certainty. So far as wine is
taken to aid digestion, Blackie, who considers that wine "may even be
necessary to stimulate digestion," holds that "healthy _young_
men can never require such a stimulus."
A belief exists that men who abstain from alcohol indulge to excess in
some other stimulant. There is some foundation for this belief.
Balzac, for instance, abstained from tobacco, which he declared
injured the body, attacked the intellect, and stupefied the nations;
but he drank great quantities of coffee, which produced the terrible
nervous disease which shortened his life.
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