Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong DrinkArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Religion
Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Temperance
"An analysis of the condition of the mind induced and maintained by the
free daily use of alcohol as a drink, reveals a singular order of facts.
The manifestation fails altogether to reveal the exaltation of any
reasoning power in a useful or satisfactory direction. I have never met
with an instance in which such a claim for alcohol has been made. On the
contrary, confirmed alcoholics constantly say that for this or that
work, requiring thought and attention, it is necessary to forego some of
the usual potations in order to have a cool head for hard work.
"On the other side, the experience is overwhelmingly in favor of the
observation that the use of
"ALCOHOL SELLS THE REASONING POWERS,
"make weak men and women the easy prey of the wicked and strong, and
leads men and women who should know better into every grade of misery
and vice. * * * If, then, alcohol enfeebles the reason, what part of the
mental constitution does it exalt and excite? It excites and exalts
those animal, organic, emotional centres of mind which, in the dual
nature of man, so often cross and oppose that pure and abstract
reasoning nature which lifts man above the lower animals, and rightly
exercised, little lower than the angels.
IT EXCITES MAN'S WORST PASSIONS.
"Exciting these animal centres, it lets loose all the passions, and
gives them more or less of unlicensed dominion over the man. It excites
anger, and when it does not lead to this extreme, it keeps the mind
fretful, irritable, dissatisfied and captious.... And if I were to take
you through all the passions, love, hate, lust, envy, avarice and pride,
I should but show you that alcohol ministers to them all; that,
paralyzing the reason, it takes from off these passions that fine
adjustment of reason, which places man above the lower animals. From the
beginning to the end of its influence it subdues reason and sets the
passions free. The analogies, physical and mental, are perfect. That
which loosens the tension of the vessels which feed the body with due
order and precision, and, thereby, lets loose the heart to violent
excess and unbridled motion, loosens, also, the reason and lets loose
the passion. In both instances, heart and head are, for a time, out of
harmony; their balance broken. The man descends closer and closer to the
lower animals. From the angels he glides farther and farther away.
A SAD AND TERRIBLE PICTURE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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