t
the inevitable necessity of labor imposed on most persons from a very
early period. In this matter the limit between temperance and excess is
aptly fixed by the term _recreation_, as applied to all the gay and
festive portions of life. _Re-creation_ is making over, that is, replacing
the waste of tissue, brain-power, and physical and mental energy
occasioned by hard work. Temperance permits the most generous indulgence
of sport, mirth, and gayety that can be claimed as needful or conducive to
this essential use, but excludes all beyond this measure.

*Abstinence* from all forms of luxury and recreation, and from food and
drink beyond the lowest demands of subsistence, has, under various
cultures, been regarded as a duty, as an appropriate penance for sin, as a
means of spiritual growth, as a token of advanced excellence. This notion
had its origin in the dualistic philosophy or theology of the East. It was
believed that the sovereignty of the universe was divided between the
semi-omnipotent principles of good and evil, and that the earth and the
human body were created by the evil principle,--by Satan or his analogue.
Hence it was inferred that the evil principle could be abjured and defied,
and the good principle propitiated in no way so effectually as by
renouncing the world and mortifying the body. Fasting, as a religious
observance, originated in this belief. It was imported from the East. The
Hebrew fasts were not established by Moses; they were evidently borrowed
from Babylon, and seem to have been regarded with no favor by the
prophets. The Founder of Christianity prescribed no fast, nor have we any
reason to believe that his immediate disciples regarded abstinence as a
duty. Christian asceticism in all its forms is, like the Jewish fasts, of
Oriental origin, and had its first developments in close connection with
those hybrids of Christianity and Oriental philosophy of which the dualism
already mentioned forms a prominent feature.

With regard to all objects of appetite, desire, and enjoyment,
*temperance* is evidently fitting, and therefore a duty, unless there be
specific reasons for abstinence. Temperance demands and implies moral
activity. In the temperate man the appetites, desires, and tastes have
their continued existence, and need vigilant and wise control, so that he
has always work to do, a warfare to wage; and as conflict with the
elements gives vigor to the body, so does conflict with the body add