It is introduced thus by an editor:-- "In these days of extreme abstinence from wine and spirits, it is refreshing to see what the strong common-sense of an eminent moral philosopher has to say about temperance.

We make, then, a longish extract, well-nigh exhaustive of the subject, which occurs in a lecture, entitled 'America Revisited--1851 and 1877,' from the pen of Martin Tupper, explaining itself.

The author introduces his poetic essay thus:--'Since my former visit to the States twenty-five years ago, few changes are more remarkable than that in the drinking habits of the people; formerly it was all for spirituous liquors, and now it is "Water, water everywhere, and every drop to drink!" The bars are well-nigh deserted, and the entrance-halls of most houses are ostentatiously furnished with plated beakers and goblets ensuring an icy welcome: in fact, not to be tedious, intemperance has changed front, and excess in water has taken the place of excess in wine.'" To an Englishman's judgment the true "part of Hamlet" in a feast is the more generous fluid, and the greatest luxuries are simply Barmecidal without some wholesome stimulant to wash them down; accordingly, my too outspoken honesty protested thus in print against this form of folly in extremes, and either pleased or offended, as friends or foes might choose to take it.
"Temperance?
Yes! true Temperance, yes! Moderation in all things, the word is express; 'Nothing too much'-- Greek, 'Meden Agan;' So spake Cleobulus, the Seventh Wise Man; And the grand 'golden mean' was shrewd Horace's law, And Solomon's self laid it down for a saw That 'good overmuch' is a possible fault, As meat over-salted is worse for the salt; And Chilo, the Stagyrite, Peter, and Paul, Enjoin moderation in all things to all; The law to make better this trial-scene, earth, And draw out its strongest of wisdom and worth, By sagely suppressing each evil excess-- In feasting, of course, but in fasting no less-- In drinking--by all means let no one get drunk-- In eating, let none be a gluttonous monk, But everyone feed as becometh a saint, With grateful indulging and wholesome restraint, Not pampering self, as an epicure might, Nor famishing self, the ascetic's delight.
"But man ever has been, and will be, it seems, Given up to intemperance, prone to extremes; The wish of his heart (it has always been such) Is, give me by all means of all things too much! In pleasures and honours, in meats, and in drinks, He craves for the most that his coveting thinks; To wallow in sensual Lucullus's sty, Or stand like the starving Stylites on high, To be free from all churches and worship alone, Or chain'd to the feet of a priest on a throne, To be rich as a Rothschild, and dozens beside, Or poor as St.Francis (in all things but pride), With appetite starved as a Faquir's, poor wretch! Or appetite fattened to luxury's stretch; Denouncing good meats, on lentils he fares, Denouncing good wine, by water he swears-- In all things excessive his folly withstands The wise moderation that Scripture commands.
"This vice of excess is no foible of mine, Though liking and needing a glass of good wine, To help the digestion, to quicken the heart, And loosen the tongue for its eloquent part, But never once yielding one jot to excess, Nor weakly consenting the least to transgress.
For let no intolerant bigot pretend My Temperance Muse would excuse or defend, As Martial or tipsy Anacreon might, An orgy of Bacchus, the drunkard's delight: No! rational use is the sermon I'm preaching, Eschewing abuse as the text of my teaching.
"Old Pindar says slyly, that 'Water is best;' When pure as Bandusia, this may be confest.
But water so often is troubled with fleas And queer little monsters the microscope sees; Is sometimes so muddy, and sometimes so mixt With poisons and gases, both fixt and unfixt, And seems so connected with juvenile pills-- A thought which the mind with unpleasantness fills-- That really one asks, is it safe to imbibe So freely the live animalcula tribe, Unkilled and uncooked with a little wine sauce Poured in, or of whisky or brandy a toss-- And gulp a cold draught of the colic, instead Of something to warm both the heart and the head?
"That Jotham-first-fable, the bramble and vine, Piles up to a climax the praise of good wine; For in Judges we read--look it up, as you can-- 'It cheereth the heart, both of God and of man;' And everywhere lightness, and brightness, and health, Gild the true temperance texts with their wealth, Giving strong drink to the ready to perish, And heavy-heartedness joying to cherish.
"What is wanted--and let some Good Templar invent it, Damaging drunkenness, nigh to prevent it, Is a drink that is nice, warm, pleasant, and pale, Delicious as 'cakes,' and seductive as 'ale,' Like 'ginger that's hot in the mouth' and won't hurt you, As old Falstaff winks it, in spite of your virtue; A temperate stimulant cup, to displace Pipes, hasheesh, and opium, and all that bad race; Cheap as pure water and free as fresh air-- Oh, where shall we find such a beverage--where?
"No wine for the pure or the wise--so some teach-- Abstinence utter for all and for each, Total denial of every right use, Because some bad fools the good creature abuse! As well might one vow not to warm at a fire, Nor give the least rein to a lawful desire, Because some have recklessly burnt down their houses, Because the rogue cheats, or the reveller carouses! I see not the logic, the rational logic, Conclusive to me, coherent and cogic, That since some poor sot in his folly exceeds, I must starve out my likings, and stint out my needs.
"Am I _that_ brother's keeper?
He is not an Abel, Is strange to my roof, and no guest at my table: I know not his mates, we are not near each other, He swills in the pothouse, that dissolute brother!-- But there's your example ?--The drunkards can't see it, And if they are told of it, scorn it and flee it; Example ?--Your children!--No doubt it is right To be to them always a law and a light; But moderate temperance is the vise way To form them, and hinder their going astray; Whereas utter abstinence proves itself vain, And drunkards flare up because good men abstain.
"The law of reaction is stringent and strong, A youth _in extremis_ is sure to go wrong, For the pendulum swings with a multiplied force When sloped from its even legitimate course.
I have known--who has not ?--that a profligate son Has been through his fanatic father undone; Restrained till the night of free licence arrives, And then he breaks out to the wreck of two lives! "A fierce water-fever just now is red-hot; Drink water, or perish, thou slave and thou sot! Drink water alone, and drink more, and drink much-- But, liquors or wines?
Not a taste, not a touch! Yet, is not this fever a fervour of thrift?
It is wine you denounce, but its cost is your drift; The times are so hard and the wines are so bad (For good at low prices are not to be had), That forthwith society shrewdly shouts high For water alone, the whole abstinence cry! And, somehow supposed suggestive of heaven, The cup of cold water is generously given, But a glass of good wine is an obsolete thing, And will be till trade is once more in full swing! I hint not hypocrisy; many are true, They preach what they practise, they say--and they do, And used from their boyhood to only cold water, Enjoin nothing better on wife, son, and daughter; But surely with some it is merely for thrift, That they out off the wine, and with water make shift, Although they profess the self-sacrifice made As dread of intemperance makes them afraid.
And so, like a helmsman too quick with his tiller, Eschewing Charybdis they steer upon Scylla, To perish of utter intemperance--Yes! The victims of water consumed to excess.
"To conclude: The first miracle, wonder Divine, Wasn't wine changed to water, but water to wine, That wine of the Kingdom, the water of life Transmuted, with every new excellence rife, The wine to make glad both body and soul, To cheer up the sad, and make the sick whole.
And when the Redeemer was seen among men, He drank with the sinners and publicans then, Exemplar of Temperance, yea, to the sot, In use of good wine, but abusing it not! We dare not pretend to do better than He; But follow the Master, as servants made free To touch, taste, and handle, to use, not abuse, All good to receive, but all ill to refuse! It is thus the true Christian with temperance lives, Giving God thanks for the wine that He gives." I once heard Mr.Gough, the temperance lecturer: it was at the Brooklyn Concert Hall in 1877.

A handsome and eloquent man, his life is well known, and that his domestic experiences have made him the good apostle he is.

I remember how well he turned off the argument against himself as to the miracle of the marriage-feast in Cana of Galilee: "Yes, certainly, drink as much wine made of water as you can." It was a witty quip, but is no reply to that miracle of hospitality.