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The Analogy of Flowers.

your influence and example, you may be the means of conferring like benefit on many around you.

The man that uses alcohol as an article of food, honestly-though, as we have seen, most erroneously -believing it to be such, has some excuse. But as for him who uses it as a luxury, avowedly, in the full knowledge of the risk incurred thereby to himself and others, I do not say that he is without excuse; but this I say, that his excuse-if a good one-would cost both him and me some trouble to find.

In another way I have heard the objection put. "Beneficent Providence has filled the earth with food convenient for man's natural wants; and has clothed it too with flowers, to regale and delight his senses. May I not look on wine in this light, and use it as I would a flower—at least occasionally?"

The earth is fair with flowers-their fragrance is sweet, and their hues are beautiful. But even they are often the better of man's hand to restrain and guide them; and weeding may be done wisely, too, especially with regard to domestic interests.

There is a place for every thing. Shut up the most fragrant flowers in a bed-room, and let the sleeper tell what he thinks of their perfume next morning. Literally he is sick of it; and well he may, for, through

Belladonna and Aconite.

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it, he is sick to all things else. There is belledonna -a graceful plant, with its dark luscious berries, most fair to look upon. But will you place it by the nursery window, or along the daily walk of your prattling children, who may be tempted to put forth their tiny hands, and pluck the deadly poison? Nay. You will rather leave it where placed by nature-in the neighbourhood of ruins, in waste places and solitudes. And there is aconite-beautiful in its spikes of deep-blue helmeted flowers. Will you think it safe to put it into your garden, mayhap near a bed of the esculent horse-radish-for whose root it has so often been fatally mistaken? Better be content with some other ornament, and leave the monkshood to its indigenous mountain sides and wooded hills.

Flowers are luxuries, of the gentlest as well as of the gayest sort. Many--nay, most-are in all respects harmless when in their proper place. Keep them there. And let those that you have nearest you, and in daily companionship, be both simple and safe; not poisonous, or even in any way hurtful, to yourselves or others.

And so with alcohol. If you will have a luxury, take not that. Be content with some other, less formidable to you and yours.

Again; what is fairer than the poppy, spread broadcast in the field? As nature plants and rears it, it is

H

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Opium and the Poppy.

a fit luxury to the eye. But let man, in his cunning device, torture the plant till it yield its juice; and then that luxury-not for the eye, but for a grosser sense becomes a deadly poison. So with the grape. What fairer than the vine-its climbing stem, its shady leaves, its gorgeous clusters? "The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell." The ripened fruit is a "dainty," both sweet and savoury; and its simple juice, both then and now, unfermented and undecayed, is well fitted to nourish man, as well as to gladden his heart. But as man's "invention" extorted opium from the poppy, so it brought "spirit" from the grape. Out of the simple luxuries that God gave him, wilful man has manufactured poisons. Samson's riddle is reversed-out of meat comes forth the eater; out of sweetness comes forth the strong.

The occasional use of both alcohol and opium we readily admit to be most beneficial, under the exaction of disease, and the management of a physician; but to employ either as articles of food, or as mere luxuries, is to pervert the nature of things, and wantonly to incur the risk of the greatest evils.

ALCOHOL: ITS POWER.

FOR the right use of any agent, a knowledge of its power is quite essential, in order that its working may be duly regulated according to the effect which we desire to produce.

Let us consider the power of alcohol somewhat in detail, although this may involve some repetition of former statements repetition which may seem clumsy, and inconsistent with due logical arrangement, but which, if successful in rendering the meaning obvious and plain, and so enhancing the practical value of this little book, will, I hope, be pardoned, if not altogether overlooked.

I. The power of alcohol as a poison. This is great, as we have seen. In a large dose it may prove instantly fatal, as if by shock; or the victim may linger a while, dying by choking and stupor. With a less dose one may be in great danger, yet recover; carry

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Power as a Poison.

ing for many a day the traces of his injury. In a less dose still, alcohol produces what is commonly called "intoxication;" and if this be frequently repeated, both mind and body suffer sad change-the poison acting chiefly on the brain and nervous system, and on the liver and kidneys. From this cause life may at any time be imperilled by the invasion of active diseaseorganic or functional: inflammation of the brain or its membranes, apoplexy, congestion, delirium tremens, insanity, epilepsy-and diseases of the liver and kidneys, in all their vast variety. Or, by still smaller doses, a cumulative action may be produced, ultimately developing itself in entire prostration of the nervous system -alcoholismus chronicus-a condition very analogous to founder in the horse, though proceeding from a different cause. Or, once more, by somewhat diminishing the frequent dose, these seemingly greater evils may be avoided, while yet the whole frame is being gradually sapped and undermined; not an organ or a tissue left undisturbed in its structure or function.

In other words, alcohol, according to its dose, and the susceptibility of its victim, is either acute or chronic in its working; a sudden poison, or a slow one.

"A madman casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, and saith, 'Am not I in sport?"" And there is many a man-virtually mad, on at least one point—a monomaniac-who daily saturates himself with this