habit in drinking. It has
connected abstinence with the ceremonial of religion and the pleasures
of social organizations. It has addressed the working-man--as, in fact,
he often is--as a child, and saved him from his own habits, by a sworn
abstinence. Thousands of men could never have freed themselves from this
most tyrannical appetite, except by absolute refusal to touch. In fact,
it may be said that no vice is ever abandoned by gradual steps. The only
hope for any one under the control of any wrong indulgence is in entire
and immediate abandonment.

With those, too, who had not fallen under the sway of this appetite,
especially if of the working class, abstinence was the safest rule.

The "Total Abstinence Reform" in this country, in Great Britain, and in
Sweden, was one of the happiest events that ever occurred in the history
of the working classes. Its blessings will descend through many
generations. But in its nature it could not last. It was a tremendous
reaction against the heavy and excessive drinking of fifty years since.
It was a kind of noble asceticism. Like all asceticism, it could not
continue as a permanent condition. Its power is now much spent. Wherever
it can be introduced now among the laboring classes, it should be; and
we believe one of the especial services of the Irish Catholic clergy, at
this day, to the world, is in supporting and encouraging this great
reform.

All who study the lower classes are beginning, however, now to look for
other remedies of the evil of intemperance.

It has become remarkably apparent, during the last few years, that one
of the best modes of driving out low tastes in the masses is to
introduce higher. It has been found that galleries and museums and parks
are the most formidable rivals of the liquor-shops. The experience near
the Sydenham Palace, in England, and other places of instructive and
pleasant resort for the laboring masses, is, that drinking-saloons do
not flourish in opposition. Wherever, in the evening, a laboring-man can
saunter in a pleasant park, or, in company with his wife and family,
look at interesting pictures, or sculpture, or objects of curiosity, he
has not such a craving for alcoholic stimulus.

Even open-air drinking in a garden--as is so common on the Continent--is
never so excessive as in an artificial-lighted room. Where, too, a
working-man can, in a few steps, find a cheerfully-lighted reading-room,
with society or papers, or where a cl