Temperance prize essays / By Drs. Mussey and Lindsly.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Temperance prize essays / By Drs. Mussey and Lindsly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    180/210 (page 174)
    ‘* CHAP TER XII. Method of Curing the Habit of Drunkenness. Be break the chase of habit which binds the drunkard to his bottle, like Prometheus to the rock, is a labor of great, nay, of almost. insur- mountable difficulty. — There is not perhaps a single habit within the whole circle of human conduct which exerts so powerful, we might say so uncontrollable an in- fluence on the mind as that of intemperance—and not one from which deliverance is so seldom. ob- tained. So complete and absorbing is the drunk- ard’s devotion to his cups—so bitter and over- whelming is his wretchedness when deprived of this stimulus—that he will sacrifice health, repu- tation, friends, family, every thing, to sratify this all-powerful appetite. In contending with the habit of intemperance we have a double war to wage, for not only is the body enslaved by this vice, but the mind also is carried captive and debased ; and thus those moral considerations, by which we must chiefly expect to operate.upon the inebriate, lose ie and sometimes. all of their influence. But although the difficulty of breaking up this disasterous fascination by which the drunkard is