WILL POWER is the great weapon to use in our own behalf. You
tell the drunkard to use his will power.
But you forget that the first thing that whiskey attacks is will
power.
You remind the drunkard that his weakness brings suffering on
others, and you appeal to his conscience. But you forget that
whiskey weakens conscience even more than it weakens the nerves.
You forget, too, that whiskey makes its victims suffer. If
he could free himself he would do so, if only for his own sake.
And you must not forget that whiskey argues ingeniously, in
addition to its telling of lies.
A man is overcome with some great grief. Whiskey makes him
forget, or at least it makes him not care.
A man is suffering some great humiliation, some sense of personal
shortcoming, that is intolerable to him. Whiskey offers to
relieve him, and for the moment it does relieve him. ----
YOU who talk nobly of temperance and advocate laws governing
other men are apt to be proud of your own self-control.
Perhaps you have been a drinking man and have stopped. But you
do not know how much lighter whiskey's hold may have been upon
you than upon others.
Suppose you worked hard every day, every week and every year.
Suppose you had no pleasure in life, save the fictitious pleasure
and excitement that come from whiskey.
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