? Nay, verily, they destroy them
all. Give them to the legal advocate; do they increase his knowledge,
his perception to discover the points of his case, his readiness to
apply the evidence, his ability to persuade a court and jury? No; they
destroy them all. Give them to the mechanic; do they assist his
ingenuity, his judgment, or his taste? No; they destroy them all. Give
them to the laborer; do they add to his strength? Do they enable him to
bear fatigue, to endure heat and cold? Can he do more work, or do it
better? No; they are the ruin of the whole. They reduce his strength,
weaken his frame, make him more susceptible to heat and cold,
disorganize his whole system, and unfit him for labor.

"But there are some men," say you, "who use ardent spirits, and who get
along very well." Admitted. They endure it. So there are some men who
get along very well with poor health and feeble constitutions. Are poor
health and feeble constitutions, therefore, no evils? Is the prosperity
of such to be attributed to them? As much as is that of the former to
the use of ardent spirits. Was ever a man made rich by the use of ardent
spirits? Never; but millions have been made beggars by it.

Yet some say, they _feel better_ by drinking ardent spirits. Let us
examine this excuse. It is nothing but an excuse, and he who loves rum
and is ashamed to own it, says he feels better to drink it. Let us
inquire how. Are they conducive to health? On this subject let the
physician decide. One, as great as this country has produced, Dr. Rush,
says that the habitual use of ardent spirits usually produces the
following diseases: A loss of appetite, sickness at the stomach,
obstruction of the liver, jaundice and dropsy, hoarseness and a husky
cough, which often ends in consumption, diabetes, redness and eruptions
of the skin, a fetid breath, frequent and disgusting belchings,
epilepsy, gout, and madness. This is the train of diseases produced by
the use of ardent spirits, and the usual, natural, and legitimate
consequences of their use. And now, I ask, can that which, of its own
nature, produces these diseases, make a man feel better? Reason might
answer; and were she on her throne, uninfluenced and unbiassed by the
love of ardent spirits, she would unequivocally answer, No. And we find
that those who say they feel better to drink ardent spirits, are those
who are in health, but love rum, and it gratifies their appetite, and
this is what they mean by