"The stimulating action which alcohol appears to exert on the brain functions is only a paralytic action. The cerebral functions which are first interfered with are _the power of clear judgment and reason_. No man ever became witty by aid of spirituous drinks. The lively gesticulations and useless exertions of intoxicated people are due to paralysis,--the restraining influences, which prevent a sober man from uselessly expending his strength, being removed." The Drink Habit.--The harmful effects of alcohol (aside from the purely physiological effect upon the tissues and organs of the body) are most terribly seen in the formation of the alcohol habit. The first effect of drinking alcoholic liquors is that of exhilaration. After the feeling of exhilaration is gone, for this is a temporary state, the subject feels depressed and less able to work than before he took the drink. To overcome this feeling, he takes another drink. The result is that before long he finds a habit formed from which he cannot escape. With body and mind weakened, he attempts to break off the habit. But meanwhile his will, too, has suffered from overindulgence. He has become a victim of the drink habit! "The capital argument against alcohol, that which must eventually condemn its use, is this, that _it takes away all the reserved control, the power of mastership, and therefore offends against the splendid pride in himself or herself, which is fundamental in every man or woman worth anything_."--DR. JOHN JOHNSON, quoting Walt Whitman. Self-indulgence, be it in gratification of such a simple desire as that for candy or the more harmful indulgence in tobacco or alcoholic beverages, is dangerous--not only in its immediate effects on the tissues and organs, but in its more far-reaching effects on habit formation. Each one of us is a bundle of appetites. If we gratify appetites of the wrong kind, we are surely laying the foundation for the habit of excess. Self-denial is a good thing for each of us to practice at one time or another, if for no other purpose than to be ready to fight temptation when it comes.