Up to the present time we have been chiefly engaged in recording the facts of history, and in describing various phases in the social life of nations, but in the present chapter we shall have to deal with theories and opinions of a more or less debateable character. This it will be our endeavour to do, as heretofore, in an impartial spirit; but whilst we examine the views of others without prejudice, we shall not hesitate to avow openly the convictions which have been forced upon us, by a careful review of the experience of the past and by personal observation of the social changes now in progress. What, then, have been the causes of intemperance in the human race? and are those causes still in operation? These are the questions to which we must first seek satisfactory replies. Some persons hold the view that climate has much to do with the inordinate love of intoxicating drink, and they point to the intemperance of Northern nations—of the Russians, the Swedes, the Norwegians, and the English—as examples in favour of their theory, comparing them with the Mohammedans and the nations of Southern Europe. But our cursory glance at the habits of the earliest known races of mankind has taught us that there has been as great intemperance in warm and dry as in cold and damp climates. The history and traditions of ancient China, of some of the Aryan races of India, and of the ancient Egyptians, go far to invalidate the climatic theory. And how about the people of ancient Greece and Rome during the decadence of the latter? What is to be said of Torquatus “Tricongius;” of the Emperor Tiberius? Even the evidence which is adduced in favour of the theory, on careful inquiry, tells against it. It is true that the Mohammedans of to-day are a comparatively sober people. But why are they so? Because their great prophet found them such inveterate drunkards that he made them renounce intoxicating drinks entirely, in order to save them from destruction.