r it must
be; but Providence, in his mercy, has so constituted man, that habit
grows into a new nature; and these hardy sons of creation sing as
merrily, smile as cheerfully, smoke as calmly, and unquestionably sleep
as soundly, as any veteran in idleness, though pampered with luxuries,
and with a balance at his banker's which he is at a loss how to
squander.

These sons of toil bear practical testimony to the truth of what the
late lamented Sir J. Franklin always declared to be his conviction, from
long experience, viz., that the use of spirits is enfeebling rather than
invigorating to those who have to work in the most severe climates. The
Lumberers are nearly all teetotallers, and I am told they declare that
they find their health bettered, their endurance strengthened, their
muscles hardened, and their spirits enlivened by the change. If this be
so, and if we find that the natives of warm climates are, as a mass,
also teetotallers, and that when they forsake their temperance colours
they deteriorate and eventually disappear, I fear we must come to the
conclusion, that however delicious iced champagne or sherry-cobbler may
be, or however enjoyable "a long pull at the pewter-pot," they are not
in any way necessary to health or cheerfulness, and that, like all
actions, they have their reactions, and thus create a desire for their
repetition, until by habit they become a second nature, to the great
comfort and consolation of worthy wine-merchants and fashionable medical
men, whose balance-sheets would suffer about equally by the
discontinuance of their use; not to mention the sad effects of their
misuse, as daily exhibited in police reports and other features, if
possible worse, which the records of "hells" would reveal.

So strong does the passion become, that I know of a lady who weighs
nearly a ton, and is proud of displaying more of her precious substance
than society generally approves of, in whom the taste "for a wee drop"
is so strong, that, to enable her to gratify it more freely, she has the
pleasure of paying two medical men a guinea each daily, to stave off as
long as they can its insidious attacks upon her gigantic frame. You must
not, however, suppose that I am a teetotaller. I have tried it, and
never found myself better than while practising it; still I never lose a
chance if a bottle of iced champagne is circulating, for I confess--I
love it dearly.

Pardon this digression.--We are again on the Ottawa