l the storms of
adversity unhurt. We frequently hear a man's intemperance attributed to
a particular cause, as loss of friends, loss of property, disappointed
love, or ambition; when, if the truth were known, it would be seen that
such men had previously been addicted to the use of ardent spirits,
perhaps not immoderately, and fly to them on such events as their solace
and support. Intemperance requires an apprenticeship, as much as law or
physic; and a man can no more become intemperate in a month, than he can
become a lawyer or a physician in a month. Many wonder that certain
intemperate men, of fine talents, noble hearts, and manly feelings, do
not reform; but it is a greater wonder that any ever do. The evil genius
of intemperance gradually preys upon the strength of both body and mind,
till the victim, when he is caught, finds, that although he was a giant
once, he is now a child. Its influence is seductive and insinuating, and
men are often irretrievably lost before they are aware of it. Let them
beware how they take the first step. It is by degrees that men become
intemperate. No man ever became so all at once--it is an impossibility
in the nature of things. It requires time to harden the heart, to do
away shame, to blunt the moral principle, to deaden the intellectual
faculties, and temper the body. The intemperance of the day is the
natural and legitimate consequence of the customs of society--of genteel
and respectable society. It is the common and ordinary use of ardent
spirits, as practised in our towns and villages, that has already
peopled them with drunkards, and which, unless checked, will fill them
with drunkards. The degree of intemperance that prevails, and the
quantity of ardent spirits used, in our most respectable towns, is
almost incredible. Perhaps some facts on this subject will be
interesting.

As it regards _the degree of intemperance that prevails_, it may be
safely said, that one out of a hundred of the inhabitants of this part
of the country is a common drunkard. By a common drunkard is meant one
who is habitually intemperate, who is often intoxicated, and who is
restrained from intoxication neither by principle nor shame. Of such
there are from ten to twenty, and upward, in every inhabited township.
There is another class who are intemperate, and many of them are
occasional drunkards. This class is more numerous than the former, and
one out of about forty of the inhabitants belongs to one