d kill it;" "as he drew nigh, he heard music and
dancing"); and I will show you how all these three things, fine dress,
rich food, and music (including ultimately all the other arts) are
meant to be sources of life, and means of moral discipline, to all
men; and how they have all three been made, by the Devil, the means of
guilt, dissoluteness, and death.[A] But first I must return to my
original plan of these letters, and endeavor to set down for you some
of the laws which, in a true Working Men's Parliament, must be
ordained in defense of Honesty.

[A] See 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter XXIV.

Of which laws (preliminary to all others, and necessary above all
others), having now somewhat got my raveled threads together again,
I will begin talk in my next letter.

LETTER XII.

THE NECESSITY OF IMPERATIVE LAW TO THE PROSPERITY OF STATES.

_March 20, 1867._

63. I have your most interesting letter,[A] which I keep for
reference, when I come to the consideration of its subject in its
proper place, under the head of the abuse of Food. I do not wonder
that your life should be rendered unhappy by the scenes of drunkenness
which you are so often compelled to witness; nor that this so gigantic
and infectious evil should seem to you the root of the greater part of
the misery of our lower orders. I do not wonder that George Cruikshank
has warped the entire current of his thoughts and life, at once to my
admiration and my sorrow, from their natural field of work, that he
might spend them, in struggle with this fiend, for the poor lowest
people whom he knows so well. I wholly sympathize with you in
indignation at the methods of temptation employed, and at the use of
the fortunes made by the vendors of death; and whatever immediately
applicable legal means there might be of restricting the causes of
drunkenness, I should without hesitation desire to bring into
operation. But all such appliance I consider temporary and
provisionary; nor, while there is record of the miracle at Cana (not
to speak of the sacrament) can I conceive it possible, without
(logically) the denial of the entire truth of the New Testament, to
reprobate the use of wine as a stimulus to the powers of life.
Supposing we did deny the words and deeds of the Founder of
Christianity, the authority of the wisest heathens, especially that of
Plato in the 'Laws,' is wholly against abstinence from wine; and m