A Voice from the Vintage; On the Force of Example

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1843 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. PRIVATE OBJECTIONS, AND GENERAL ENCOURAGEMENTS. Having glanced slightly at some of the most serious objections to total abstinence, and such as will be found in many of the temperance publications more ably and more fully refuted, we will turn our attention to those of a less serious nature, though one can hardly help suspecting that the real root of the matter lies in some of these. I will, therefore, call them private objections, because though powerful in their operation upon individual conduct, they are not frequently brought forward in public, nor made grounds of objection, except in the private intercourse of life. To examine these objections in detail, however, would be to collect together some of the most M irrational modes of reasoning, and some of the most partial and unfounded statements, which have ever been laid before the world. A few only of these I will therefore point out, not as being worthy of refutation, but simply as proofs of the unfair and superficial manner in which the subject is too frequently treated, even by persons who professedly hold the welfare of society, and the good of their fellow-creatures, at heart. What! exclaim the lovers of what is called good cheer, and the advocates of the rights of the people, would you deny the poor man his beer? Do penance as you like yourselves, but never attempt to deprive a free-born English labourer of the roast beef and brown ale of his country. Did the English labourer always manage to get his roast beef along with his brown ale, less would perhaps be said on the subject; but, unfortunately, in too many cases, the beef is wholly wanting. The advocates of total abstinence therefore reply, we deny the poor labourer nothing. He is a free agent when he takes the temperance ple...