the privileges,
and so attain the end of temperance, in the _conjugal relation_. The
next step, of course, will be teetotalism in this particular; and, as a
consequence, the extinction of the human race, unless peradventure the
failure of the main enterprise of the _Moral Reform Society_ should keep
it up by a progeny not to be honoured." ("A Voice from America.")

Let it be remembered that this is not a statement of my own, but it is
an _American_ who makes the assertion, which I could prove to be true,
might I publish what I must not.

From the infirmity of our natures, and our proneness to evil, there is
nothing so corrupting as the statistics of vice. Can young females
remain pure in their ideas, who read with indifference details of the
grossest nature? Can the youth of a nation remain uncontaminated, who
are continually poring over pages describing sensuality; and will they
not, in their desire of "something new," as the Prophet says, run into
the very vices of the existence of which they were before unconscious!
It is this dangerous running into extremes which has occasioned so many
of these societies to have been productive of much evil. A Boston
editor remarks: "The tendency of the leaders of the moral and benevolent
reforms of the day to run into fanaticism, threatens to destroy the
really beneficial effects of all associations for these objects. The
spirit of propagandism, when it becomes over zealous, is next of kin to
the spirit of persecution. The benevolent associations of the day are
on the brink of a danger that will be fatal to their farther usefulness
if not checked."

Of the Abolition Society and its tendency, I have already spoken in the
chapter on slavery. I must not, however, pass over another which at
present is rapidly extending its sway over the whole Union, and it is
difficult to say whether it does most harm or most good--I refer to the
Temperance Society.

The Rev Mr Reid says:

"In the short space of its existence, upwards of seven thousand
Temperance Societies have been formed, embracing more than one million
two hundred and fifty thousand members. More than three thousand
distilleries have been stopped, and more than seven thousand persons who
dealt in spirits have declined the trade. Upwards of one thousand
vessels have abandoned their use. And, most marvellous of all! it is
said that above ten thousand drunkards have been reclaimed from
intoxication." And he adds--"I