Three or four capitalists are invited to meet at a gentleman's house to consider some proposition he has to lay before them.

They are liberally supplied with wine, and drink without a lurking suspicion of what the service of good wine means.

They see in it only the common hospitality of the day, and fail to notice that one or two of the company never empty their glasses.

On the next day these men will most likely feel some doubt as to the prudence of certain large subscriptions made on the previous afternoon or evening, and wonder how they could have been so infatuated as to put money into a scheme that promised little beyond a permanent investment.
"If," added Mr.Carlton, "we could come at any proximate estimate of the loss which falls upon society in consequence of the moderate use of intoxicating drinks, we would find that it exceeded a hundred--nay, a thousand--fold that of the losses sustained through drunkenness.
Against the latter society is all the while seeking to guard itself, against the former it has little or no protection--does not, in fact, comprehend the magnitude of its power for evil.

But I have wearied you with my talk, and forgotten for the time being the anxiety that lies so near my heart.