but when
even beggars became debauchees, the case was altered.

The public virtue and spirit of the British legislature never showed
itself more conspicuous in any act, than in that for suppressing the
immoderate use of distilled spirits among the people, whose strength
and numbers constitute the true wealth of a nation: though evasive arts
will, it is feared, prevail so long as distilled spirits of any kind are
allowed, the character of Englishmen in general being that of Brutus,
_Quicquid vult valde vult_ [whatever he desires he desires intensely].
But why should such a canker be tolerated in the vitals of a State,
under any pretense, or in any shape whatsoever? Better by far the whole
present set of distillers were pensioners of the public, and their trade
abolished by law; since all the benefit thereof put together would not
balance the hundredth part of its mischief.

This tar-water will also give charitable relief to the ladies, who often
want it more than the parish poor; being many of them never able to make
a good meal, and sitting pale and puny, and forbidden like ghosts, at
their own table, victims of vapors and indigestion.

Studious persons also, pent up in narrow holes, breathing bad air, and
stooping over their books, are much to be pitied. As they are debarred
the free use of air and exercise, this I will venture to recommend as
the best succedaneum to both; though it were to be wished that modern
scholars would, like the ancients, meditate and converse more in walks
and gardens and open air, which upon the whole would perhaps be no
hindrance to their learning, and a great advantage to their health. My
own sedentary course of life had long since thrown me into an ill habit,
attended with many ailments, particularly a nervous colic, which
rendered my life a burden, and the more so because my pains were
exasperated by exercise. But since the use of tar-water, I find, though
not a perfect recovery from my old and rooted illness, yet such a
gradual return of health and ease, that I esteem my having taken this
medicine the greatest of all temporal blessings, and am convinced that
under Providence I owe my life to it.

HECTOR BERLIOZ

(1803-1869)

To the concert-goer the name Hector Berlioz calls up a series of vast
and magnificent whirlwinds of vocal and orchestral sonority, the
thoughts of scores that sound and look imposingly complex to the eyes
and ears of both the educated and uneducated i