It is assumed by most persons that alcohol gives strength, and we hear
feeble persons saying daily that they are being 'kept up by stimulants.'
This means actually that they are being kept down; but the sensation
they derive from the immediate action of the stimulant deceives them and
leads them to attribute passing good to what, in the large majority of
cases, is persistent evil. The evidence is all-perfect that alcohol
gives no potential power to brain or muscle. During the first stage of
action it may enable a wearied or a feeble organism to do brisk work for
a short time; it may make the mind briefly brilliant; it may excite
muscle to quick action, but it does nothing substantially, and fills up
nothing it has destroyed, as it leads to destruction. A fire makes a
brilliant sight, but leaves a desolation. It is the same with alcohol.

On the muscular force the very slightest excess of alcoholic influence
is injurious. I find by measuring the power of muscle for contraction in
the natural state and under alcohol, that so soon as there is a distinct
indication of muscular disturbance, there is also indication of muscular
failure, and if I wished by scientific experiment to spoil for work the
most perfect specimen of a working animal, say a horse, without
inflicting mechanical injury, I could choose no better agent for the
purpose of the experiment than alcohol. But alas! the readiness with
which strong, well-built men slip into general paralysis under the
continued influence of this false support, attests how unnecessary it
would be to subject a lower animal to the experiment. The experiment is
a custom, and man is the subject.

The true place of alcohol is clear; it is an agreeable temporary shroud.
The savage, with the mansions of his soul unfurnished, buries his
restless energy under its shadow. The civilized man overburdened with