s himself a slave to the habit, but emancipated himself, as many others
have done, among them our own De Quincey, for whom the task was so much
the harder inasmuch as he drank the poison to the extent, for some time,
of 8,000 drops of laudanum a day.[102] A Chinaman, writing to the _Times_
in 1875, says: "I have not yet seen or heard of a case where a confirmed
opium-smoker could not reform himself if he had been compelled to leave
off his vicious habit by necessity or from determined resolution." So much
for the tenacity of the habit; but we are not disposed to admit even that
it is more seductive than alcohol, for have we not Dr. Myers' opinion that
"his experience both in Formosa and in other parts of China would go to
support the statement that the use of opium through the medium of the
pipe does not, at least up to a certain point, irresistibly and inherently
tend to provoke excess, as is very often the case with the stimulants
indulged in by foreigners."

Sufficient evidence has been produced to show that alcohol is productive
of far more evil than opium, inasmuch as the former, though beneficial to
most people when taken in moderation, yet with others acts as a virulent
poison, even in the smallest quantities; while taken in excess its
immediate effect is to make the drunkard like a "beast with lower
pleasures," to bring out, in fact, the lower side of our nature, and to
incite to deeds of violence and crime; and its certain subsequent result
is disease, madness, and death. Opium, however, like alcohol, when taken
in moderation is a comfort and a solace to thousands, and, while soothing
and relieving the body, acts[103] in such a way on the brain as to quicken
the intellectual faculties, and not in the manner of alcohol to deaden
them. The opposite effects of opium and alcohol, the one in
quickening,[104] the other in deadening the faculties, may be gathered
from the fact that the Chinese indulge in the pipe _before_ entering upon
business matters, while we reserve our wine till the matter in hand has
been fully discussed. At the same time it may be admitted that excessive
indulgence in opium impairs the fortune and health, and, like every other
self-indulgence, weakens the moral nature of the victims to its
"bewitching influence." This being so, the unprejudiced observer will ask
with wonder why those who are so indignant about the opium traffic, do not
turn their attention with the same zeal to the suppression of