t lips of volcanic Schneehalten. But good character and a useful
life thrive amid club-room dissipations--_Never!_
The best way to make a wild beast cower is to look him in the eye, but
the best way to treat the temptations I have described is to turn your
back and fly! O! my heart aches! I see men struggling to get out of
the serfdom of bad habits, and I want to help them. I have knelt with
them and heard their cry for help. I have had them put one hand
on each of my shoulders, and look me in the eye, with an agony of
earnestness that the judgment shall have no power to make me forget,
and from their lips, scorched with the fires of ruin, have heard
them cry "God help me!" There is no rescue for such, save in the Lord
Almighty.
Well, what we do, we had better do right away. The clock ticks now and
we hear it. After a while the clock will tick and we shall not hear
it. Seated by a country fireside, I saw the fire kindle, blaze, and go
out. I gathered up from the hearth enough for profitable reflections.
Our life is just like the fire on that hearth. We put on fresh fagots,
and the fire bursts through and up, and out, gay of flash, gay of
crackle--emblem of boyhood. Then the fire reddens into coals. The
heat is fiercer; and the more it is stirred, the more it reddens. With
sweep of flame it cleaves its way, until all the hearth glows with
the intensity--emblem of full manhood. Then comes a whiteness to the
coals. The heat lessens. The flickering shadows have died along the
wall. The fagots drop apart. The household hover over the expiring
embers. The last breath of smoke has been lost in the chimney. Fire is
out. Shovel up the white remains. ASHES!
FLASK, BOTTLE, AND DEMIJOHN.
[NOTE.--This chapter, in its first shape, was given some currency
under the title of "The Evil Beast." I have, however, so revised and
added to that Lecture, that, as here given, it is essentially a new
presentation of the dreadful Abomination of Rum, and it is in
this present shape that I wish the public to receive it as a full
expression of my views thereon. T.D.W.T.]
There has in all ages and climes been a tendency to the improper use
of stimulants. Noah, as if disgusted with the prevalence of water in
his time, took to strong drink. By this vice Alexander the Conqueror
was conquered. The Romans, at their feasts, fell off their seats with
intoxication. Four hundred millions of our race are opium-eaters.
India, Turkey, and Chin
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