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bearings, and in the course of our enquiries to admit every truth which may present itself to our discernment, even though it may be opposed to our predilection. Keeping this in view, and holding to the conviction that whatever may be the frailty of mankind, the practice of fortifying both the mental and corporeal powers against the allurements of an existing evil is far more easy of attainment than some persons suppose, we proceed to a further consideration of the subject. We admit that alcoholic beverages contain poison; so does the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat; aye! and we have heard it affirmed that with many physiologists it is a disputed point as to how much of certain prisons are necessary for the vilification of dormant faculties, the eradication of painful disease and even to health and life itself. Be that as it may, there have been persons dosed with alcohol from the cradle to the grave and yet have attained an age much beyond the average duration of life They have lived in spite of themselves" say, the teetotallers. Well, they may have done so; but we confess to the inability of comprehending the logical truth of the statement. There is, perhaps, a certain degree of probability that by a different course, there might in such cases have been even a greater prolongation of existence; and our own opinion so far favours this assumption that if we were compelled to diverge in either direction from the "happy medium", we would certainly have no hesitation in adopting, as the least of two evils, total abstention in preference to perpetual repletion. We would even now admit that although some persons have imbibed large quantities of alcoholic drinks with impunity, there are others who have succumbed to the destructive influence ascribed to such a course. But the case here supposed is one of extreme indulgence one of decided intemperance; and no more shows that because there is a destructive element in alcohol it is therefore not required any more than that because there are millions of lives sacrified by fire, water, electricity, and other agencies, those are not necessary elements to mans existence. That alcoholic beverages contain poison we have already admitted, and we have not the slightest doubt that an immoderate use of them is injurious to man’s constitution; but the same holds good in a modified degree in the excessive use of other stimulating or refreshing drinks, such as tea, coffee, especially when consumed, as is the practice with many persons (teetotallers included) at a temperature only a few degrees below boiling point, and in which the drinker could not bear his finger. When we heard a female member of a total-abstinence society boast that she could at any time drink half a pint of vinegar, we exclaimed interrogatively is that temperance? and if repeated daily would it not be far more injurious to the human system then the same daily quantity of beer? And when, on a cold snowy morning we heard a teetotaller, in refusing some mulled ale, make a statement to the effect that he had consumed four bottles of ginger beer before breakfast, we who can rarely take one bottle without discomfort, shuddered for the ultimate effects, and the more so, as the assurance was given that the drinking of such a quantity was by no means uncommon, particularly in hot weather. Again, when we heard a teetotaller lecturer -