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for which tea, cocoa, and coffee are now employed. They lived to see the fermented beverages largely superseded, in the one use of them by distilled liquors, and in the other use of them by the hot drinks which have ever since been on our tables. In their childhood, however relatively plentiful wine and ale may be said to have been, they were yet so scarce that habitual drunkenness was beyond the reach of any except those who had access to the cellars of the rich. Befo^e they died anybody could get drunk for a penny. It should be added to this, that the use of tobacco became general during the seventeenth century. And as having a real, though less direct, connection with the temperance problem, account must be taken of all the marvelous discoveries and inventions which have rendered human life in these later centuries so much more complicated and strenuous than it was before.

These radical changes of condition naturally led to corresponding changes in the convictions of men in regard to the use of alcoholic drinks.

2. Opinions To trace the development of these con- Changed victions would be to sketch the history with the of the modern temperance reform in Problem. America and the Old World. Until the nineteenth century, the general opinion of mankind certainly did not condemn the use of intoxicating drinks, nor even occasional drunken ness, provided the drinker kept himself prudently guarded from further bad results. Philo the Jew, just before the Christian era, wrote extensive trea tises on " Drunkenness " and " Sobriety." These in clude a formal discussion of the question, " Whether the wise man will get drunk." Philo replies by citing the expressed opinions of men, as well as evi dence of other sorts, on both sides of the question. He says that " the sons of physicians and philoso phers of high repute . . . have left behind 10,000 commentaries entitled treatises on drunkenness," and censures these for the narrowness of their treat ment of the subject. He insists on the difference between the drinking of " unmixed wine," which will produce intoxication, and that of lighter or di luted wines. He calls unmixed wine a poison and a medicine, and condemns the drinking-contests which were common in his day. But he none the less indorses what he represents to be the current opinion, namely, that a wise man may occasionally get drunk. His helplessness when drunk no more disproves his wisdom than if it resulted from a bil ious attack, from sleep, or from death. Philo inti mates that the opposite opinion is quite respectably defended, but proves, to his own complete satisfac tion, that it is indefensible. His opinions concern ing the drinking-habit are certainly those which have been commonly held until the last century. But, as far back as traces exist, there is found a highly rep utable line of opinion in favor of total abstinence from intoxicating beverages. Of this, in the eight eenth century, the distinguished Samuel Johnson is an instance. Earlier in the century, Le Sage sar castically admires " the patriotic forecast of those ancient politicians who established places of public resort, where water was dealt out gratis to all cus tomers, and who confined wine to the shops of the apothecaries, that its use might be permitted but RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

under the di-ection ofi~p~sicians "; and the wisdom of those who freqi~.~nted these resorts, not for " swilling themselves with wine, but . . . for the decent and economical amusement of drinking warm water" (Adventures of Coil Blas, book ii., chap. 4). This sarcasm must have been aimed at opinions held by respectable contemporaries of the author. In 1743 John Wesley, in his General Rules, mentions as sinful, " drunkenness, buying or selling spirituous liquors, or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity." It is said that in 1733 the trustees of the colony of Georgia, who were living in London, enacted that " the drink of rum in Georgia be absolutely prohibited, and that all which shall be brought there be staved." In the colonies and in Great Britain, during that century, there were several instances of similar legislation. Samuel Pepys, in his Diary, 1659-69, figures as an inconsistent total abstainer. Going back with a bound to the times of Philo, he asserts (Treatise on, Drunkenness, ii.) that " great numbers of persons, who, because they never touch unmixed wine, look upon themselves as sober," yet display the same foolishness, senselessness, lack of self-control, and the like, as are displayed by a drunken person. Still earlier familiar instances are those of the Rechabites and the Nazirites (q.v.), of Samuel, and Daniel. Nearly up to the present time, therefore, the world has been aware of the dangers and evils attendant upon the use of inebriating beverages, has been in possession of the idea of total abstinence from them, and has been compelled to look upon total abstainers with high respect, but has, on the whole, approved the use of such beverages, not merely in what is now sometimes called moderation, but up to the line of occasional and discreet drunkenness.

The revolution of opinion, at least as a great and controlling movement, began in America. A representative incident will indicate its

3. Nine- nature. The incident is taken from teenth- the Collections of the Cayuga County Century Historical Society, 1882. Joseph Tall- Movement. cot was a member of the Society of Friends, living a few miles south of the town of Auburn, N. Y. In all that vicinity, in 1816, the crops were so short that poor people found it difficult to procure breadstuffs for food. At the same time, Tallcot noticed, the distilleries kept in operation. He says:

" The circumstances affected me not a little, and induced me to write an address to the sober and influential part of the community, inviting them to a serious consideration of the melancholy situation, and the evils and calamitous consequences of intemperance. I insisted that nothing short of the example of that part of society which gives habits to the world, of abstaining altogether from the use of ardent spirits, except for medical purposes, would correct this alarming evil."

It occurred to Joseph Tallcot to offer his views for the consideration of the members of the Presbyterian Synod of Geneva. In his narrative he says:

" I found my way to the house of Henry Axtell, the Presbyterian clergyman .... His brethren from the surrounding country soon began to come into the village, and call on him for instruction where they might find entertainment among their friends. The master of the house appeared very hospitable, inviting them to partake of his brandy; which they did, with what would be thought moderation.