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

THE BASES
OF THE
TEMPERANCE REFORM.
CHAPTER I.
PROPOSITION: THAT THE DRINKING SYSTEM IS THE
GREATEST SOCIAL EVIL IN OUR LAND.
A FAMILIAR adage tells us that the knowledge of a disease is half its cure; but this proverb must be taken with
due qualification, or it will lead to false security and folly.
To know something about an evil may still leave unknown
what is essential to its successful treatment. Neither
will simple knowledge insure a remedy, for the passive
contemplation of great evils often deadens a suitable anxiety for their removal. It is when full-orbed knowledge
rouses the moral forces of a man or a community that
hope may be entertained of efficient exertion. Partial
knowledge, leading to inadequate or ill-advised action,
will tend to little but waste of energy and grievous disappointment. And it is not too much to say that for
want of a larger knowledge-in connection, in some quarters, with an indifference calling for the severest censurethe drinking system has continued, down to this time, the
weakness, the burden, the curse, and the shame of the
British people.
In everyday language, drunkenness is the greatest evil
of our social life; but who does not feel, on reflection,