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to us from the early periods of society, gaining strength and power, and influence, in its descent. That such is the fact requires no proof. Its devastating effects are but too obvious. In these latter times more especially, it has swept over our land with the rapidity and power of a tempest, bearing down every thing in its course. Not content with rioting in the haunts of ignorance and vice, it has passed through our consecrated groves, has entered our most sacred enclosures:-And oh ! how many men of genius and of letters have fallen before it! how many lofty intellects have been shattered and laid in ruins by its power! how many a warm and philanthropic heart has been chilled by its icy touch! It has left no retreat unvisited; it has alike invaded our public and private assemblies, our political and social circles, our courts of justice and halls of legislation. It nas stalked within the very walls of our Capitol, and there left the stain of its polluting touch on our national glory. It has leaped over the pale of the church, and even reached up its sacrilegious arm to the pulpit and dragged down some of its richest ornaments. It has revelled equally on the spoils of the palace and the cottage, and has seized its victims with an unsparing grasp, from every class of society; the private citizen and public functionary, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the enlightened and the ignorant,-and where is there a family among us so happy, as not to have wept over some of its members, who have fallen by the hand of this ruthless destroyer.

As a nation, intemperance has corrupted our morals, impaired our intellect, and enfeebled our physical strength. Indeed, in whatever light we view it, whether as an individual, a social, or national evil, as affecting our personal independence and happiness, our national wealth and industry; as reducing our power of naval and military defence, as enfeebling the intellectual energies of the nation, and undermining the health of our fellow citizens; as sinking the patriotism and valour of the nation, as increasing paupers, poverty and taxation, as sapping the foundation of our moral and religious institutions, or as introducing disorder, distress and ruin into families and society; it calls to us in a voice of thunder, to awake from our slumbers, to seize every weapon, and wield every power which God and nature has placed within our reach, to protect ourselves and our fellow citizens from its ravages.

But the occasion will not permit me to dwell on the general effects of intemperance, nor to trace the history of its causes.-I shall, therefore,

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confine myself more particularly to a consideration of its influence on the individual-its effects on the moral, intellectual and physical constitution of man-not the primary effect of ardent spirit as displayed in a fit of intoxication: scenes of this description have too frequently been impressed on your senses, to render it proper or necessary that I should at this time introduce a subject so disgusting, and attended with so many painful recollections. It is the more insidious, permanent and fatal effects of intemperance, as exemplified in the case of the habitual dramdrinker, to which I wish to call your attention.

I. The effects of ardent spirit on the moral powers:

It is perhaps difficult to determine in what way intemperance first manifests its influence on the moral powers, so variously does it affect dif ferent individuals. Were I to speak from my own observation, I should say that it first appears in an alienation of those kind and tender sympathies which bind a man to his family and friends; those lively sensibilities which enable him to participate in the joys and sorrows of those around him. "The social affections lose their fulness, and tenderness, the conscience its power, the heart its sensibility, till all that was once lovely and rendered him the joy and the idol of his friends, retires," and leaves him to the dominion of the appetites and passions of the brute. "Religious enjoyment, if he ever possessed any, declines as the emotions excited by ardent spirit, arise." He loses by degrees his regard to truth and to the fulfilment of his engagements-he forgets the Sabbath and the house of worship, and lounges upon his bed, or lingers at the tavern. He lays aside his bible-his family devotion is not heard, and his closet no longer listens to the silent whispers of prayer. He at length becomes irritable, peevish and profane; and is finally lost to every thing that respects decorum in appearance, or virtue in principle; and it is lamentable to mark the steps of that process by which the virtuous and elevated man sinks to ruin.

II. Its effects on the intellectual powers:

Here the influence of intemperance is marked and decisive. The inebriate first loses his vivacity and natural acuteness of perception. His judgment becomes clouded and impaired in its strength, the memory also enfeebled and sometimes quite obliterated. The mind is wandering and vacant, and incapable of intense or steady application to any one subject. This state is usually accompanied by an unmeaning stare or fixedness of countenance quite peculiar to the drunkard. The imagina

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tion and the will, if not enfeebled, acquire a morbid sensibility, from which they are thrown into a state of violent excitement from the slightest causes; hence the inebriate sheds floods of tears over the pictures of his own fancy. I have often seen him, and especially on his recovery from a fit of intoxication, weep and laugh alternately over the same scene. The will, too, acquires an omnipotent ascendancy over him, and is the only monitor to which he yields obedience. The appeals of conscience, the claims of domestic happiness, of wives and children, of patriotism and of virtue, are not heard.

The different powers of the mind having thus lost their natural relation to each other, the healthy balance being destroyed, the intellect is no longer fit for intense application, or successful effort-and although the inebriate may, and sometimes does astonish, and delight by the flights of his fancy, and the poignancy of his wit, yet in nine cases out of ten he fails, and there is never any confidence to be reposed in him. There have been a few, who from peculiarity of constitution, or some other cause, have continued to perform intellectual labour for many years, while slaves to ardent spirits; but in no instance has the vigor of the intellect or its ability to labour been increased by indulgence: and where there is one who has been able to struggle on under the habits of intemperance, there are thousands who have perished in the experiment, and some among the most powerful minds that the world ever produced. On the other hand, we shall find by looking over the biography of the great men of every age, that those who have possessed the clearest and most powerful minds, neither drank spirits nor indulged in the pleasures of the table. Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke, Dr. Franklin, John Wesley, Sir William Jones, John Fletcher, and President Edwards, furnish a striking illustration of this truth. One of the secrets by which these men produced such astonishing results, were enabled to perform so much intellectual labour, and of so high a grade, and to arrive at old age in the enjoyment of health, was a rigid course of abstinence. But Ihasten to consider more particularly,

III. Its effects on the physical powers:

In view of this part of the subject, the atten'ion of the critical observer is arrested by a series of circumstances, alike disgusting and melancholy.

1. The odour of the breath of the drunkard furnishes the earliest indication by which the habitual use of ardent spirit becomes known. This

is occasioned by the exhalation of the alcoholic principle from the bronchial vessels, and air cells of the lungs-not of pure spirit, as taken into the stomach, but of spirit which has been absorbed, has mingled with the blood, and has been, subjected to the action of the different organs of the body; and not containing any principle which contributes to the nourishment or renovation of the system, is cast out with the other excretions as poisonous and hurtful; and this peculiar odour does not arise from the accidental or occasional use of spirit; it marks only the habitual dram-drinker; the one who indulges daily in his potation; and although its density varies in some degree with the kind of spirit consumed, the habits and constitution of the individual, yet it bears generally a close relation to the degree of intemperance. These observations are confirmed by some experiments made on living animals by the celebrated French Physiologist, Magendie. He ascertained that diluted alcohol, a solution of camphor, and some other odorous substances, when subjected to the absorbing power of the veins, are taken up by them, and after mingling with the blood, pass off by the pulmonary exhalants. Even phosphorus injected into the crural vein of a dog, he found to pass off in a few moments from the nostrils of the animal in a dense white vapour, which he ascertained to be phosphoric acid. Cases have occurred, in which the breath of the drunkard has become so highly charged with alcohol, as to render it actually inflammable by the touch of a taper. One individual in particular, is mentioned, who often amused' his comrades by passing his breath through a small tube, and setting it on fire, as it issued from it. It appears also, that this has sometimes beer the source of that combustion of the body of the drunkard, which has been denominated spontaneous; many well authenticated cases of which are on record.

2. The perspirable matter which passes off from the skin becomes charged with the odour of alcohol in the drunkard, and is so far changed in some cases as to furnish evidence of the kind of spirit drank. I have met with two instances, says Dr. McNish, the one in a claret, and the other in a port drinker; in which the moisture that exhaled from their bodies, had a ruddy complexion, similar to the wine on which they had committed their debauch.

3. The whole system soon bears marks of debility and decay. The voluntary muscles lose their power, and cease to act under the controul of the will, and hence all the movements become awkward, exhibiting

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the appearance of stiffness in the joints. The positions of the body, also, are tottering and infirm, and the step loses its elasticity and vigor. The muscles, and especially those of the face and lips, are often affected with a convulsive twitching, which produces the involuntary winking of the eye, and quivering of the lip, so characteristic of the intemperate. Indeed, all the motions seem unnatural and forced, as if restrained by some power within. The extremities are at length seized with a tremor, which is more strongly marked after recovery from a fit of intoxication. The lips lose their significant expression, and become sensual-the complexion assumes a sickly leaden hue, or is changed to an unhealthy, fiery redness, and is covered with red streaks and blotches. The eye becomes watery, tender, and inflamed, and loses its intelligence and its fire. These symptoms, together with a certain oedematous appearance about the eye, bloating of the whole body, with a dry, feverish skin, seldom fail to mark the habitual dram-drinker; and they go on increasing and increasing, till the intelligence and dignity of the man is lost in the tameness and sensuality of the brute.

But these effects, which are external and obvious, are only the signals which nature holds out, and waves in token of internal distress;" for all the time the inebriate has been pouring down his daily draught and making merry over the cup, morbid changes have been going on within; and though these are unseen, and it may be unsuspected, they are fatal, irretrievable.

A few of the most important of these changes I shall now describe: 4. The stomach and its functions:

This is the great organ of digestion. It is the chief instrument by which food is prepared to nourish, sustain and renovate the different tissues of the body, to carry on the various functions, and to supply the waste which continually takes place in the system. It is not strange, therefore, that the habitual application to the organ of any agent, calculated to derange its functions, or change its organization, should be followed by symptoms so various and extensive, and by consequences so fatal. The use of ardent spirit produces both these effects; it deranges the functions of the stomach, and if persisted in long enough, seldom fails to change its organic structure.

The inebriate first loses his appetite, and becomes thirsty and feverish; he vomits in the morning, and is affected with spasmodic pains in