n addicted to intemperance will bind
himself by an oath to abstain, for a certain time, from intoxicating
liquors. In an instance which has been related to me, an individual
under this process observed the most rigid sobriety for five years, but
was found in a state of intoxication the very day after the period of
abstinence expired. In such a case, the habit is suspended by the mere
influence of the oath; but the desire continues unsubdued, and resumes
all its former power whenever this artificial restraint is withdrawn.
The effect is the same as if the man had been in confinement during the
period, or had been kept from his favourite indulgence by some other
restraint entirely of an external kind; the gratification was prevented,
but his moral nature continued unchanged.

These principles may be confidently stated as facts in the moral
constitution of man, challenging the assent of every candid observer of
human nature. Several conclusions seem to arise out of them, of the
utmost practical importance. We perceive, in the first place, a state
which the mind may attain, in which there is such a disruption of its
moral harmony, that no power appeals in the mind itself capable of
restoring it to a healthy condition. This important fact in the
philosophy of human nature has been clearly recognised, from the
earliest ages, on the mere principles of human science. It is distinctly
stated by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics, where he draws a striking
comparison between a man who, being first misled by sophistical
reasonings, has gone into a life of voluptuousness, under an impression
that he was doing no wrong,--and one who has followed the same course in
opposition to his own moral convictions. The former he contends might be
reclaimed by argument; but the latter he considers as incurable. In such
a state of mind, therefore, it follows, by an induction which cannot be
controverted, either that the evil is irremediable and hopeless, or
that we must look for a power from without the mind which may afford an
adequate remedy. We are thus led to perceive the adaptation and the
probability of the provisions of Christianity, where an influence is
indeed disclosed to us, capable of restoring the harmony which has been
lost, and raising man anew to his place as a moral being. We cannot
hesitate to believe that the Power, who framed the wondrous fabric, may
thus hold intercourse with it, and redeem it from disorder and ruin. On
the