The bases of the temperance reform: an exposition and appeal./ With replies to numerous objections. By Rev. Dawson Burns.

CHAPTER VI[.
PROPOSITION: THAT THE EXCLUSION OF INTOXICATING
DRINKS FROM THE DIET, THfE ENTERTAINMENTS, AND
THE COMMERCE OF SOCIETY IS A PRINCIPLE APPROVED
BY SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY, AND IS THE. ONLY
EFFICIENT CURE AND PREVENTIVE OF INTEMPERANCE
IT will be perceived by the thoughtful reader that the
proposition now submitted is in effect the only reasonable conclusion to which all the facts, arguments, and
illustrations of the previous chapters tend, and in which
they converge.
FIRST. It has been shown tIat intloxicalig drinks are
,zot food, and do not serve any of the furposes of food; but
that, wherever their action can be traced in the human
frame, they are found go dgmi'nish 7,/iatloawer, and to render man less capable than before taking them to discharge the functions of a living being. It irresistibly
follows that they are unfit for diet, and that they cannot
be introduced as luxuries, or permitted to be sold, under
the pretence that they can add to the health, vigor, and
longevity of mankind. Submitted to physiological tests,
and to the comparative experience of persons in all occupations and of all constitutions, they stand condemned.
The plea that they add to the enjoyment of social life is
not a plea which science can entertain; and while it may
be admitted that hilarity is excited by them, owing to
their effects on the nervous system, it is not true that
their use is necessary to the greatest amount of rational
pleasure, either personal or social.* On the contrary, it is
* Among Sydney Smith's Rules and Maxims was the following: "If you
wish to keep the mind clear and body healthy, abstain from all fermented