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

64 The P/lisiologic?ial Effcts of A Icoho/.
men love to hide the weakness of their case. Social life
in itself is not artificial in any unnatural sense, for "it is
not good for man to be alone," and from the social senti ment are derived the -family, the tribe, the state; nor is
there any reason, intrinsically, why artificial arrangements, arising out of the complexities of civilization,
should be injurious to the human constitution. Labor,
either of hand or brain, is not unhealthy, but a means of
health, unless excessive; and though undue labor, impure air, mental anxiety and suffering, and other things
(many of them not limited to an artificial state of society),
do conduce to bodily weakness and decay, how can it be
shown that resorting to alcoholic drinks is wise and useful? To say that "we live artificially, and therefore must
use artificial diet "-i.e., brandy, wine, or beer-is a mere
play upon words; for if the artificial life be in itself an
evil, and if the use of alcohol be also an evil, how can the
conjunction of the evils result in benefit to the subject
of them? The excuse that so much work "1must" be
done, and that alcohol must be used as a forcing-pump,
whatever damage may ensue, is not a plea which can be
sustained on the ground of morality; and it has but a
limited application in a physiological sense. If alcohol
draws upon the reserve strength of the system, and uses
it up, this plan, like that of living above one's income
must come to an end by-and-by, and premature weakness
will set in. The physiological offence will be avenged in
due course, to say nothing of the collateral losses and
injuries sustained, or of the affront offered to him who
has made us, and who has given us our physical-powers to
use and not abuse. No doubt the struggle of life is keen
and wearing, and critical periods may occur when alcohol, opium, even arsenic and other poisons, would supply
the temporary aid so earnestly desired; "but the prudent
man foreseeth the evil," and he knows that to keep the
blood, muscles, and nerves free from noxious agents is
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