Suppose you failed, and
failed and failed again--and suppose that whiskey was always
ready to praise you, make you feel proud of yourself, make you
hold others responsible for your failures--are you sure you could
let it alone? ----
In your condemnation of those who persist in whiskey drinking
you must remember that what is easy for one man is very hard for
another.
Suppose you should urge two animals to go without meat--one of
the animals being a tiger and the other a sheep. Would you
praise the sheep for its faithful keeping of the promise? Would
you blame the tiger for breaking its word, if the temptation to
eat meat were offered?
In men's nervous systems, in their craving for alcohol, there is
as great a difference between different temperaments as between
the appetites of the sheep and the tiger. One man is dragged
toward the gulf by whiskey with a force of which you have no
conception.
You look with contempt at a hopeless drunkard, shuffling along
toward destruction.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF SUCH MEN WHO EVERY DAY OF THEIR LIVES
MAKE AN EFFORT OF THE WILL OF WHICH YOU WOULD BE INCAPABLE.
But that effort, great as it is, is not great enough to save
them--whiskey drags them too hard in the other direction.
Fortunately, we can all congratulate ourselves on the steady
falling off in drunkenness.
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