"I would not like to say that. There are certain evils against
which there can be no legislation that would not do harm. No civil
power in this country has the right to say what a citizen shall
eat or drink."

"But may not the people, in any community, pass laws, through
their delegated law-makers, restraining evil-minded persons from
injuring the common good?"

"Oh, certainly--certainly."

"And are you prepared to affirm, that a drinking-shop, where young
men are corrupted, aye, destroyed, body and soul--does not work an
injury to the common good?"

"Ah! but there must be houses of public entertainment."

"No one denies this. But can that be a really Christian community
which provides for the moral debasement of strangers, at the same
time that it entertains them? Is it necessary that, in giving rest
and entertainment to the traveler, we also lead him into
temptation?"

"Yes--but--but--it is going too far to legislate on what we are to
eat and drink. It is opening too wide a door for fanatical
oppression. We must inculcate temperance as a right principle. We
must teach our children the evils of intemperance, and send them
out into the world as practical teachers of order, virtue and
sobriety. If we do this, the reform becomes radical, and in a few