own expense. Seeking real
strength in stimulus is as wise as an attempt to lift yourself up by
your boot-straps. You may gather yourself to leap the ditch, and you
clear it; but no such muscular energy can be sustained: exhaustion
speedily renders further expenditure impossible. But now suppose a very
powerful mental impression be made, say the circumstance of a succession
of ditches in front, and a mad dog behind: if the stimulus of terror be
sufficiently strong, you may leap on till you drop senseless. Alcoholic
stimulus is a parallel case, and is not seldom pushed to the same
extreme. Under its influence you never can tell when you _are_ tired;
the expenditure goes on, indeed, with unnatural rapidity, only it is not
felt at the time; but the upshot is, you have all the original fatigue
to endure and to recover from, _plus_ the fatigue resulting from
over-excitation of the system. Taken as a fortification against cold,
alcohol is as unsatisfactory as a remedy for fatigue. Insensibility to
cold does not imply protection. The fact is, the exposure is greater
than before; the circulation and respiration being hurried, the waste is
greater; and, as sound fuel cannot be immediately supplied, the
temperature of the body is soon lowered. The transient warmth and glow
over the system has both cold _and_ depression to endure. There is no
use in borrowing from yourself, and fancying you are richer.

Secondly, the value of any stimulus (except in a few exigencies of
disease or injury) is in proportion, not to the intensity, but to the
equableness and durability, of its effect. This is one reason why tea,
coffee, and articles of corresponding qualities, are preferable to
alcoholic drinks: they work so smoothly that their effect is often
unnoticed, and they "stay by" well. The friction of alcohol is
tremendous in comparison. A glass of grog may help a veteran over the
fence; but no one, young or old, can shoot all day on whiskey.

I have had so much experience in the use of tobacco as a mild stimulant,
that I am probably no impartial judge of its merits. I will simply say,
I do not use it in the field, because it indisposes to muscular
activity, and favors reflection when observation is required; and
because temporary abstinence provokes the morbid appetite, and renders
the weed more grateful afterwards.

Thirdly, undue excitation of any physical function is followed by a
corresponding depression, on the simple principle that ac