University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS HERTELL.

Dear Sir,—I have been some time a debtor for
your favor of Novr 11th accompanied by a Copy of
your Exposè.[7] It reached me at a time when my

attention had some particular calls on it; and I was
so unlucky as to lose by an accident, the answer which
I had prepared for a late mail.

I now repeat the thanks it contained for your
communication. I have read with pleasure the
interesting lights in which you have placed a subject,
which had passed thro' so many able hands.
The task of abolishing altogether the use of intoxicating,
& even exhilarating drinks, is an arduous
one. If it should not succeed in the extent at which
you aim, your mode of presenting the causes and
effects of the prevailing intemperance, with the obligation
& operation of an improved police & of corrective
examples, cannot fail to recompense your
efforts tho' it should not satisfy your philanthropy
& patriotism.

A compleat suppression of every species of stimulating
indulgence, if attainable at all, must be a
work of peculiar difficulty, since it has to encounter
not only the force of habit, but propensities in human
nature. In every age & nation, some exhilarating
or exciting substance seems to have been sought
for, as a relief from the languor of idleness, or the
fatigues of labor. In the rudest state of Society,
whether in hot or cold climates, a passion for ardent
spirits is in a manner universal. In the progress
of refinement, beverages less intoxicating, but still
of an exhilarating quality, have been more or less
common. And where all these sources of excitement
have been unknown or been totally prohibited by
a religious faith, substitutes have been found in

opium, in the nut of the betel, the root of the Ginseng,
or the leaf of the Tobo. plant.

It wd. doubtless be a great point gained for our
Country, and a great advantage towards the object
of your publication, if ardent spirits could be made
only to give way to malt liquors, to those afforded
by the apple & pear, and the lighter & cheaper
varieties of wine. It is remarkable that in the
Countries where the grape supplies the common
beverage, habits of intoxication are rare; and in
some places almost without example.

These observations, as you may well suppose are
not made for notice in a new edition of your work,
of which they are certainly not worthy, even if they
should not too much vary from your own view of
the subject. They are meant merely as an expression
to yourself of that respect for the laudable
object of the Exposè, and for its author, of which
sincere assurances are tendered.