University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

Much has been said and done in the cause of Temperance,
and for the reformation of those who have swerved
from its dictates. Yet there is still a strong tide to stem,
and a great work to achieve.

Are the female sex fully aware of their duties in
this matter? Too many of them have, indeed, felt the
miseries of a desecrated fireside, and the transformation
of the natural protector of themselves and their children
into a frenzied foe. Peopled prisons, and blood upon the
hearth-stone, have brought into prominence before the
public eye, that fearful intemperance from which such
sufferings flow.

It has been repeatedly asked, if females are prepared to
render all the aid in their power for the suppression of a
crime which peculiarly threatens their most sacred interests.

What is the nature of the power that they may
command? Does it not consist principally in home-influences?
In preventives,—in pencil-traces on the tender
mind,—when it “turneth as wax to the seal?”

Is not the structure of domestic life committed to their
care? And are not the seeds of the evil we contemplate
sometimes sown at the household board, in the example
of those who hold the reins of authority, or the talisman
of love? Ought not the foundation of self-control to be
laid in the early habits of unfolding character? Is abstinence
from the intoxicating cup, the whole of temperance?
Is it wise to pamper all the appetites, and then expect
the entire subjection of one? Is it safe to wait until that
one has become perverted, and then wage against it a
painful, doubtful warfare?

Women, by the courtesy of modern times, have been
styled the educating sex. High honor and deep responsibility
dwell with such a name. Should not the whole
of education teach the danger of self-indulgence, and the
excellence of intellectual enjoyments? While it recognizes
the kindness of the Great Former of the body, in
attaching pleasure to the appetites by which it is nourished,
will it fail to expose the ingratitude and madness

of putting in jeopardy through their excess, not only
the welfare of the body, but the life of the soul?

What then is the aid that woman can most fitly lend
to the noble science of being “temperate in all things?”
Not the assumption of masculine energies, not the applause
of popular assemblies; but the still, small voice
singing at the cradle-side,—the prayerful sigh, that cries
where seraphs veil their faces. So may she steadfastly
co-operate with the blessed agencies that work around
her, till, from the sanctuary of every home, shall go forth
a pure streamlet to make glad the green vales of her native
land, and to praise the Lord of the harvest.