I am here naturally led to speak of Malt Liquor, the native Produce of our Country: but on this, as well as the two foregoing Heads, we must keep Temperance in View, from the double Motive of Health and Virtue. Experience teaches us, that Malt Liquor can be rais’d to any Degree of Strength; that it is capable of inflaming the Blood and intoxicating the Brain; consequently it is capable of weakening and destroying our Frame when intemperately used. But besides these Effects, it has others often very hurtful, but less regarded, because less sensible. One, from a natural Weakness of the Bowels, it throws into habitual Purgings; another it oppresses with Wind; and in a third, from its glutinous Quality, it obstructs some of the Viscera, and has a peculiar Tendency to clog the Vessels of the Lungs, and thereby hinder Respiration, produce Coughs, and those fatal Circumstances frequently attending them. Hence it is easy to see how necessary the Parents Attention is, to guide their Children herein. Infants, at least for the first Year, have no Business with Malt Liquor at all; they ought not to taste it: Milk, or Water, or both together, is their proper Drink; and if after this Age, these were made the Liquor to drink with their Food, it would be no worse for them. However, not to be too rigorous in this respect, let Children after the first Year, wash down their Victuals with light clear Small-beer; and nothing beyond that for the first seven Years. In the second and third Septenary, the same Rule which has been laid down concerning Wine, should be observ’d in all strong Malt Liquors; they should be very sparingly used. Nothing is more dangerous than the Indulgence of Parents in this Point; for besides the many ill Effects already mentioned, ’tis coarse and vulgar; it clouds the Understanding, and renders young People unfit for Study. Besides these, it gives them an early Bloatedness; and greatly endangers the laying the Foundation of a Sot for Life: or at least gives them such a Hankering, as cannot but be a great Impediment to their Happiness. Nothing is more talk’d of for the Good of Children, and yet nothing more unsettled, than the necessary Degree of Warmth; and while some Parents are sanguine in maintaining the Necessity of much Cloathing, there are others as obstinately prone to freeze their tender Babes: even skilful and ingenious Physicians disagree in this Particular. It is a Maxim in Philosophy, that Heat is a Principle of Life: and indeed, without the Assistance of the Schools, every one knows the Truth of it. All know, that Life is warm, Death is cold; and therefore to support Life, there must always be a Degree of Warmth. This premised, it appears that Warmth is natural to us; but where to begin, or how to maintain such a Degree of it in our Children as will keep us from either Extreme, is not easy to determine. However, to keep as wide of Error as we can, we must keep close to Nature’s Laws.