American Intemperance

Temperance is a virtue not cominea to ny one seüBe - not limited to any one rticle. It restricta excess wherover it, xists. lts motto ÍS) " Nevor too mueh oí. nything." man may be a scrupuloua member of tbo cold-water aojiy and yet )e an intemperato man. For there may je intemperato use of cold water as well as of -whisky. Half a gallon of thc forner en a sultry day will.in'ake work for ,be doctor as soon as half a gallon of the atter. A man may be frenzied with anger as easily as with rum. The young udy who dances overy night tjll tbrC3 in. ,he moming deserves to be called " dissilated" as inuch as the young fellow who roes oft' on a drunkon carouse. Closely illicd to intemperanoe in drinking is in-, temperanco in eating. "Three tintes .ü. day," said one of the world's wárthiesj a 'oremost mind in logic and thealogy, 1 three times a day I sit down to the taaie determined not to exeeed, and three ;inies a day I riso finding that I have exceeded." Sydney Smith also makos the quaint confession that, aceprding to his computation, he had eaten and drunk, between his lOth and 7Oth year, about 44 wagon loads more than needed. Il' all men woro as frank, how many similar confessious shuuld we have ! Professional; epicures are, doubtless, fewer here than, in língland or Franco. 13ut probably no peoplo in the world ent more on the average than the people of the UnitedStates. A terrible iatemneránoe. prevails amongst us in tho matter of moneyd How many men are perfectly intoxicated with gola getting ; their eyes so blinded by it that thoy can see nothing olse ! Tn satiably thoy cravc more and faore of it, and are wretched if for a day thoy rnisatheir daily dram of gain. Giddy with oxccssivo draughts oL the yellow metal, they reel about amoñg all finaricial aftel moral laws till they tumble over them into the miro of dishonor. And likewiso in the.sponding of .monoy what lack of all temporáneo do we show! There is. nothing that an Atnerican oannot aft'ord to do, nothing that is too dear for him to havo. üur Yankee prodigality strike the frugal European dumbi It' ■ tffan abroa 1 ontoriains with particular suiiip ■ tuousncss or displays an equipago of special magnificence he is set duwri as either a prince or an American. In Ger- many it is said the school children havo set for thcm as a copy in their writing books, " AU Americana are rich." Our thoughtless oxtravaganco has ruined alroady half of thoso quiet cities of central, and southcrn Europe; whero ono could live a lord for a mero song. When Talleyiand visited Philadolphia half a century or more ago hesaid oontemptuoflsly, . " The Amcricans are a hospitable-mindedpeople, but their idfia of luxury is fright-, ful." If he were alivo to-dy he wouïd be amazed, not at its meagerness, but t ita incrediblo immoderation. A yoang lady is receutly reportod ets fíguring tu a dress trimmed with ostrich feathers and with genuino poarls all up and down instead of buttons. One of our petroleum aristócrata ran thíough a fortune of ?'-?,- 01)0,000 in two yoars, and endcd by hiring himgelf out as door-keeper to the ministrol tronpo Jie had himself iormerly supported for his own pleasttre. ïlow many uien amoiig us are every year running iuto debt bocause thoy willnot cut dowu tlieir style of living to the measure that their income will juatify ! Here is a kiml of intemperance which society doos not frown upon, but rftthei smiles at, whieh yet deserves as muela to havo pledgna signed to abstain i'voin as mteniperauce in intoxioating drinks. To livo withiu one'a moans is the requirement, not only of tem] uid prudenoe, but of commou lioncsty. A Portland clergyraan startled his flock on Snnday by telling thoin that "Heil vu not bo full of men and woinen es mer and woincn were full of holt,