I wonder if anyone can help me identify the following. It was published as: New England Tract Society, tract number 68, "Reason's Plea for Temperance." _ Tracts Published by the New England Tract Society _, vol. 3 (Andover: Flagg and Gould, 1815). Many research libraries have NETS tracts in a 1982 Readex Microprint edition. But this edition only includes volumes 1 and 2, so I can't determine the author of this tract from the online catalog entries generated for this series. I have been able to locate many of the other tracts bound into this volume 3, as separate items, but I have not been able to find this particular tract in a major American online catalog (e.g., not in Hollis, Melvyl, or OhioLink). So I ask, who is the author of this tract? Anyone recognize the author? He was a "layman" of the eighteenth-century-not a clergyman. At the end, he councils "legislative action," and specifically curses the drinking of "fermented liquors." He also espouses a loathsome opinion of "drunkards" and others whose "way of life" brings them to taverns. And he cants about delicacy. The text seems to have been extracted from a longer work. All in all I would guess later eighteenth-century. There a couple of memorable lines here. Most are uncharitable. For example: "A swine, wallowing in mire, is not so loathsome an object, as a drunkard; for nature in her meanest dress is always nature; but a drunkard is a monster, out of nature." "The approbation of one of [the sober] is preferable to that of a thousand drunkards." And the truly hateful: "To attempt to reform a confirmed drunkard is much the same, as preaching to a madman or idiot." Any ideas who wrote this, or where he wrote it? Thanks, Jon ======== No. 68. Reason's plea for temperance. By a layman of the last century. As the sole design of the appetite of hunger is to oblige us mechanically, by means of pain, to take that due care to support the body by proper nourishment, which reason alone could not have done; it is obvious, that the view, we ought to have an eating, is the support of life. That kind of food, which is fittest for nourishing the body, is evidently the best. What is commonly called rich feeding, is in truth slow poison. It is therefore strange, that men have so little command of themselves, that, for the present pleasure of tickling their appetites with a savory taste, will venture to shorten their days. Nothing is more evident, than that to waste the bounties of Providence in so sordid a manner, as on the materials of gluttony, is altogether unjustifiable. Riches are a stewardship, not to be squandered in pampering our vices, but to be expended in such manner, as we shall be able to answer for to Him, who entrusted us with them.--If we be really spirits, though at present embodied; it seems plain, that feeding the body ought not to engross much of our time. If indeed we look on ourselves, as more body then spirit; we ought to bestow our principal attention on the body. But this is what few will own in words; which makes their declaring it by their practice the more absurd.--If it is certain, that in the future world of spirits, to which we are hastening, there will be no occasion for this appetite; nothing is more evident, than the absurdity of indulging it in so licentious a manner, as to give it an absolute ascendant over us, and so to work it into the very mind, that it will remain, when the body, for whose sake it was given, has no farther occasion for it. The design, our maker had in placing us in this state of discipline, was to give us an opportunity of cultivating in ourselves other habits, than those of sensuality. Of the many fatal contrivances, which our species, too fertile in invention, have hit upon for corrupting themselves and perverting the end of their creation; none would appear more unaccountable, if we were not too well accustomed to see instances of it, than the savage vice of drunkenness. That it ever could become a practice for rational beings to delight in overturning their reason; that men ever could voluntarily choose, by swallowing a magical draught, to brutify themselves; nay, to sink themselves below the brutes; must appear to other orders of being wonderfully shocking. No man can bear the least reflection upon his understanding; whatever he may on his virtue. Yet men will indulge a practice, by which experience convinces them, they will effectually lose their understanding, and become idiots. Unthinking persons are wont to look with great contempt on natural fools. But in what light ought they to view a fool of his own making? What can be conceived more unsuitable to the dignity of human nature, than a drunkard, with his eyes staring, his tongue stammering, his lips quivering, his legs tottering, and his stomach heaving! Decency will not suffer me to proceed in so filthy a description. A swine, wallowing in mire, is not so loathsome an object, as a drunkard; for nature in her meanest dress is always nature; but a drunkard is a monster, out of nature. The only rational being on earth, reduced to absolute incapacity of reason or speech! A being, formed for immortality, sunk into filth and sensuality! A creature, endued with capacities for being a companion of angels, and for inhabiting the ethereal regions, in a condition, not fit to come into a clean room among his fellow creatures! The lord of this world, sunk below the vilest of the brutes! One would think all this bad enough; but much worse is to be said against this most abominable and fatal vice. For there is no other, that so effectually and suddenly unhinges and overturns all virtues, and destroys everything valuable in the mind, as drunkenness. For it takes off every restraint, and opens the mind to every temptation. So that there is no way so expeditious for a man to corrupt and debauch himself, to turn himself from a man into a demon, as by intoxicating himself with strong liquor. Nor is there perhaps any other habit so bewitching, and which so soon becomes unconquerable, as drunkenness. The reason is plain. No other vice so effetually destroys reason; and, when the faculties of the mind are overturned, what means can the unhappy person use, or what course can another take with him, to set him right? To attempt to reform a confirmed drunkard is much the same, as preaching to a madman or idiot. Reason, the helm of the mind, once destroyed, nothing remains, wherewith to steer it. It must then be left to run adrift. The very apologies, made for this beastly vice, are deplorable. One excuses himself by is being obliged to keep company. But it is notorious, that nothing more effectually disqualifies a man for company, than to have his tongue tied, and his brains stupefied with liquor. Another pretends that he is drawn by his business, or way of life, to taverns and places of entertainment. But a man must never have seen a person drunk, to imagine that strong liquor will help him in driving a bargain. For one is never so likely to be imposed on, as when he is in liquor. Nor is the pretense of drinking, to drive away care, or to cheer the spirits, more worthy of a rational creature. If, by the force of strong liquor, a man's cares may be mechanically banished, and his conscience lulled asleep awhile; they will soon break loose upon him with greater fury. He, who artificially raises his spirits by drinking, will find them sink in proportion. Then they must be raised again; and so on, till he has no spirits to raise. For understanding, and fortune, and virtue, and health, all fall before this fell destroyer. Nor is the pretence of being odious or precise among neighbours, for living temperately, any better, than the others. Alas, we are not hereafter to stand or fall by the opinion of our neighbours. Beside, we may be sure of the favorable opinion of the sober part of our acquaintaince, by keeping on the right side; the approbation of one of whom is preferable to that of a thousand drunkards. Of all of the kinds of intemperance modern times have produced one of the most fatal; which, like a plague, lays waste both town and country, sweeping the lower part of the people, nor those only, by thousands to the grave. The unhappy invention, intended, and which by its mischievous effects seems to claim satan himself for its author, is the drinking of fermented spirituous liquors. This is no place for setting forth the destructive effects of this most shocking species of debauchery. This, it is hoped, will soon be the subject of legislative inquiry; and that the accounts, tragical enough to melt a heart of rock, which will be laid before that august body, will be the cause of producing an effectual remedy for this ruinous national evil.