uries have made the best of it. The
attempt to keep down intemperance by endeavoring to persuade people to
indulge only moderately in strong drink, has been the world's favorite
for ages; while every age has wondered that the vice increased so
rapidly.

At last we have been awakened to a fair estimate of the success of the
plan. And what is it? So far from its having shown the least tendency to
exterminate the evil, it is the mother of all its abominations. All who
have attained the stature of full-grown intemperance, were once children
in this nursery, sucking at the breasts of this parent. All the "men of
strength to mingle strong drink," who are now full graduates in the
vice, and "masters in the arts" of drunkenness, began their education
and served their apprenticeship under the discipline of moderate
drinking. All that have learned to lie down in the streets, and carry
terror into their families, and whom intemperance has conducted to the
penitentiary and the madhouse, may look back to this as the beginning of
their course--the author of their destiny. No man ever set out to use
strong drink with the expectation of becoming eventually a drunkard. No
man ever became a drunkard without having at first assured himself that
he could keep a safe rein upon every disposition that might endanger his
strict sobriety. "_I am in no danger while I only take a little_," is
the first principle in the doctrine of intemperance. It is high time it
were discarded. It has deluged the land with vice, and sunk the
population into debasement. The same results will ensue again, just in
proportion as the moderate use of ardent spirits continues to be
encouraged. Let the multitude continue to drink a little, and still our
hundreds of thousands will annually drink to death.

It is settled, therefore, that to encourage moderate drinking is not the
plan on which the temperance reformation can be successfully prosecuted.
The faithful experiment of generation after generation, decides that it
must be abandoned. A cloud of witnesses, illustrating its consequences
in all the tender mercies of a drunkard's portion, demand that it should
be abandoned. Its full time is come. Long enough have we refused to open
our eyes to the evident deceitfulness of its pretensions. At last the
country is awaking, and begins to realize the emptiness of this dream.
Let it go as a dream, and only be remembered that we may wonder how it
deceived, and lament how it i