the pleasure, the
benefit, and the security, not to speak of the necessity, of the use of
ardent spirits. Thus the parents presented the decanter of strong drink
to their children, with a recommendation as forcible as if every day
they had encircled it with a chaplet of roses, and pronounced an oration
in its praise.

And what consequences were to be expected? Children who revere their
parents will honor what their parents delight to honor. It was not to be
supposed that those children would do else than imitate the high example
before them. Most naturally would they try the taste, and emulate to
acquire a fondness for strong drink. They would think it sheer folly to
be afraid of what their parents used. In a little while the flavor would
become grateful. They would learn to think of it, ask for it, contrive
ways of obtaining it, and be very accessible to the snares of those who
used it to excess. Thus easily would they slide into the pit. And thus
the history of the decline, and fall, and death of multitudes must
commence, not at the dram-shop, but at the tables of parents; not with
describing the influence of seductive companions, but with a lamentation
over the examples of inconsiderate parents, who furnished those
companions with their strongest argument, and wreathed their cup of
death with a garland of honor.

Such consequences must be looked for wherever parental example is
expected to be held in reverence among children. A father may venture to
the brink of a precipice, and stand without giddiness upon the margin of
the torrent that rushes by and plunges into a deep abyss; but will he
trust his child to occupy the same position? But if the child see him
there, is there no danger that when the parent's eye is away, he too
will venture, and go and play upon the frightful verge, and be amused
with the bubbles as they dance along the side of the cataract, and at
last become giddy, and be drawn in with the rush of the tide?

Entire abstinence from the drink of drunkards is the parents' only plan
in training up their children.

Again: _The total disuse of ardent spirits is essential to the
beneficial influence of the example of the temperate upon society at
large._

However novel the assertion to some, it can be easily shown that the
example of all who use ardent spirits, except as they use prescribed
medicine, _is in the scale of intemperance_. As far as its influence
extends, it helps directly to fill up the r