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The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table-Part26_Oliver Wendell Holmes(1809-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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virtue, I was going to say, - but that might, perhaps, sound

paradoxical. I have heard an immense number of moral physicians



lay down the treatment of moral Guinea-worms, and the vast majority

of them would always insist that the creature had no head at all,



but was all body and tail. So I have found a very common result of

their method to be that the string slipped, or that a piece only of



the creature was broken off, and the worm soon grew again, as bad

as ever. The truth is, if the Devil could only appear in church by



attorney, and make the best statement that the facts would bear him

out in doing on behalf of his special virtues, (what we commonly



call vices,) the influence of good teachers would be much greater

than it is. For the arguments by which the Devil prevails are



precisely the ones that the Devil-queller most rarely answers. The

way to argue down a vice is not to tell lies about it, - to say



that it has no attractions, when everybody knows that it has, - but

rather to let it make out its case just as it certainly will in the



moment of temptation, and then meet it with the weapons furnished

by the Divine armory. Ithuriel did not spit the toad on his spear,



you remember, but touched him with it, and the blasted angel took

the sad glories of his true shape. If he had shown fight then, the



fair spirits would have known how to deal with him.

That all spasmodic cerebral action is an evil is not perfectly



clear. Men get fairly intoxicated with music, with poetry, with

religious excitement, oftenest with love. Ninon de l'Enclos said



she was so easily excited that her soup intoxicated her, and

convalescents have been made tipsy by a beef-steak.



There are forms and stages of alcoholic" target="_blank" title="a.酒精的">alcoholic exaltation which, in

themselves, and without regard to their consequences, might be



considered as positive improvements of the persons affected. When

the sluggishintellect is roused, the slow speech quickened, the



cold nature warmed, the latentsympathy developed, the flagging

spirit kindled, - before the trains of thought become confused or



the will perverted, or the muscles relaxed, - just at the moment

when the whole human zoophyte flowers out like a full-blown rose,



and is ripe for the subscription-paper or the contribution-box, -

it would be hard to say that a man was, at that very time, worse,



or less to be loved, than when driving a hard bargain with all his

meaner wits about him. The difficulty is, that the alcoholic" target="_blank" title="a.酒精的">alcoholic



virtues don't wash; but until the water takes their colors out, the

tints are very much like those of the true celestial stuff.



[Here I was interrupted by a question which I am very unwilling to

report, but have confidence enough in those friends who examine



these records to commit to their candor.

A PERSON at table asked me whether I "went in for rum as a steady



drink?" - His manner made the question highly offensive, but I

restrained myself, and answered thus:-]



Rum I take to be the name which unwashed moralists apply alike to

the product distilled from molasses and the noblest juices of the



vineyard. Burgundy "in all its sunset glow" is rum. Champagne,

"the foaming wine of Eastern France," in rum. Hock, which our



friend, the Poet, speaks of as

"The Rhine's breastmilk, gushing cold and bright,



Pale as the moon, and maddening as her light,"

is rum. Sir, I repudiate the loathsome vulgarism as an insult to



the first miraclewrought by the Founder of our religion! I

address myself to the company. - I believe in temperance, nay,



almost in abstinence, as a rule for healthy people. I trust that I

practice both. But let me tell you, there are companies of men of



genius into which I sometimes go, where the atmosphere of intellect

and sentiment is so much more stimulating than alcohol, that, if I



thought fit to take wine, it would be to keep me sober.

Among the gentlemen that I have known, few, if any, were ruined by



drinking. My few drunken acquaintances were generally ruined

before they became drunkards. The habit of drinking is often a



vice, no doubt, - sometimes a misfortune, - as when an almost

irresistible hereditary propensity exists to indulge in it, - but



oftenest of all a PUNISHMENT.




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