Take, for example, the great moral question of Temperance, which has for so many years agitated the community, and upon which there has been so great a difference of opinion. It is difficult to conceive that a physician, possessed of the ordinary feelings of humanity, should fail to be decided on this subject, either in his opinions, or his influence. No man has had so varied and extensive opportunities of witnessing the ravages of intemperance. It is not an _occasional_ visit that he has made to the miserable home of the drunkard. It is not _occasionally_ that he has heard from trembling lips the tale of woe, and seen its painful and often hideous signs. It has been with him an almost every day occurrence. Misery on every hand has made its appeal to him. And if he has allowed his desire for popularity to hinder him from heeding such touching and frequent appeals, it is not too much to say to him, that he has been shamefully recreant to the dictates of humanity, and that he will have to render a large account of neglected opportunities of doing good.[44] No one has more frequent opportunities than the physician for acting as a peace-maker, an office which is very much needed, but which few are inclined to take. There are always many, who are willing to act as peace-makers in gross and palpable cases, when an actual quarrel has burst out, and threatens a great and manifest damage to the community, who yet may do nothing to repress the petty jealousies and the slight contentions, which are generally the cause of the greater commotions that heave up the very foundations of society. But the true peace-maker is doing his work at the fountain head, at the very beginnings of strife—not only when urgent occasions call for it, but from day to day, in every circle, by every fireside that he visits. Every day he sees the risings of ill-feeling, envy, jealousy, and discontent; and he calms them down by an influence so gentle and charm-like, that it is scarcely observed. A small thing, a word, a look, may often put out the spark which is about to light the destructive train. How few there are in this world of jealousy and contention, who are ready to utter that word, or bestow that look, and how many who will fan the spark of strife into a blaze, or will at least let it alone, and take no pains to put it out.