pinion against the least use of ardent spirits? How then could a
temperate man ever become a drunkard? He has not yet contracted the
desire for ardent spirits; and how will he contract it? Will he risk his
character; fly in the face of public feeling and opinion; despise all
the warnings in the history of intemperance, to get at the use, and put
himself under the torture of that for which, as yet, he has no
disposition? Only post a wakeful public sentiment at the little opening
of moderate drinking, and the whole highway to the drunkard's ruin will
be closed up. All its present travellers will soon pass away, while none
will be entering to keep up the character of the road.

Most assuredly, then, the reformation of the land is in the power of
public opinion. It is equally certain, that public opinion will
accomplish nothing but by setting its influence directly in opposition
to _any_ indulgence in strong drink. And it is just as plain, that in
order to accomplish this, the temperate part of the population must
create a power of example by setting out upon the firm and open ground
of total abstinence. In proportion, then, as the temperate throughout
the country shall come up to this ground, will the redemption of our
enslaved republic be accomplished.

* * * * *

Thus have we arrived at the last refuge of this cause. ABSTAIN ENTIRELY,
is the grand principle of life, to be written upon the sacred standard
of all temperance movements, and under which the contending host may be
as sure of victory as if, like Constantine, they saw inscribed with a
sunbeam upon the cloud, _In hoc signo vinces_.[F] But such being the
eminent importance of total abstinence, it deserves to be presented in
detail. We begin, therefore, with the position, that

_Entire abstinence from ardent spirits is essential to personal
security._ Such is the insidious operation of strong drink upon all the
barriers we may set up against excess; so secretly does it steal upon
the taste, excite the appetite, disorganize the nervous system, and
undermine the deepest resolutions of him who imagines himself in
perfect security; so numerous and awful have been its victories over
every barrier, and every species of mental and bodily constitution, that
we may lay it down as an assertion, which none who know the annals of
intemperance will dispute, that no individual who permits himself to use
ardent spirits moderately, has any valid s