for almost two years, to enumerate, allowing him to count one
every second. Or to suppose a useful application of this fund, it would
support annually from _two to three hundred thousand young men_ in
preparing for the Gospel ministry. In three years it is a sum more than
equal to the supply of a _Bible to every family on the habitable
globe_. One-half the amount would defray all the ordinary expenses
incident to the carrying on of our nation's governmental operations
every year. Thus I might multiply object upon object, which this vast
sum is adequate to accomplish, and carry the mind from comparison to
comparison in estimating its immense amount; still the cost, thus
considered as involving the _pecuniary_ resources of the country, is a
mere _item_ of the aggregate, when the loss of time, waste of
providential bounty, neglect of business, etc., incident to the
consumption of this one article, are thrown into the account.

A SECOND REASON why its use should be condemned is, the _entire
inadequacy of any property it possesses to impart the least benefit_,
either nutrient, or in any other way substantially to the consumer, to
say nothing just now of its never-failing injurious effects. _Alcohol_
consists chemically in a state of purity of carbon, oxygen, and
hydrogen; in the proportions of carbon about 52 parts, oxygen 34, and
hydrogen 14 to the 100. The addition of water forms the various proof
spirits. It can be generated in no way but by _fermentation_: no skill
of art has yet been able to combine the above elements in such
proportions, or relations, as to produce alcohol, except by heat and
moisture inciting fermentation in vegetable substances. But it should be
understood, that vegetables may undergo a certain degree of fermentation
without producing alcohol; or, if suffered to produce it, another stage
of fermentation will radically destroy it, and produce an acid. Thus,
any of the vegetable substances, as corn or rye, subjected to a certain
degree of heat and moisture, will soon suffer a decomposition, and a
development of sugar, to a greater or less degree, will take place. If
removed now from circumstances favorable to its farther fermentation, as
is the case with dough for bread, etc., no appreciable quantity of
alcohol is created. A _further_ degree of fermentation, however, is
generative of alcohol, and if arrested here, the alcohol maintains its
decided character; while still another stage presents the acetou