It is mere nervous

it is true, be mistaken by some for permanent strength. But it is not so. excitement, and nothing more. It operates as all unnatural excitement does. It operates, in a greater or less degree, very much as fermented or spirituous liquors, or opium, or tobacco do. It seems to give strength; and perhaps, by exciting the nerves or brain, or both, does so for a short time; but as it does not and cannot make a particle of new blood, nor improve the condition of any particle already made, the strength it gives is quite evanescent. Indeed, it weakens us in the end ;— not so much by taking away our muscular strength, as by weakening our cerebral and nervous systems, and diminishing the sum total of our nervous energy.

When, therefore, I hear people say that they must have their tea or their coffee, or they could not work, they should faint, &c., or when I hear them say that tea, at the close of a hard day's work, rests and refreshes them, or takes away the nervous headache, or removes their drowsiness,Instead of hailing it as a messenger of good to mankind, I always shudder at the thought of the mischief it involves. And coffee is as bad as tea. Dr. S., a very distinguished physician of Boston, says it is worse, and that its use is one of the most serious evils in the community.

It is true, people are sometimes faint with labor, and tea or coffee will restore, suddenly, their strength; but so would a certain dose-in some more, in others less-of spirit, or opium, or camphor. It is true that it rests them, when they are tired, and keeps them wakeful when they feel inclined to sleep; but it is also true that it ought not to do so. What they want is sleep and rest—not food or drink, nor any other refreshment. It is true, moreover, that tea or coffee may take away, for the time, the nervous headache, and promote digestion; but it is equally true, that they leave. the system, as soon as their first effects are gone, in a much worse state than they found it. In short, it is thus "true that these drinks produce many of the effects attributed to them; but they do it by inducing a species of intoxication.

I repeat it, every one of these exciting drinksand all kinds of food, especially all condimentsthat removes faintness, gives a sudden appetite, restores immediate strength, removes headache, &c., does it by a slight degree of intoxication. And can females use intoxicating drink, as a common beverage, and yet be properly considered as persons of sobriety?

If any individual doubts the correctness of these views, let him watch the effects of small quantities of each of the drinks I have included under the

name of intoxicating liquors. Let him watch the beer drinker, the wine or cider drinker, the moderate spirit drinker, and the tea or coffee drinker. Will he not perceive the effect, in all, to be in some respects the same ?

What is the difference, in nature, between the effects of two liquors, one of which is drank before a meal, and the other with it, while both loosen the tongue, fire the eye, produce mirth and wit, excite the animal passions, and lead to remarks about ourselves and others, that we should not have made in other circumstances, and which it were far better for us and the world, never to have made? Is one sex to be regarded as intemperate, in the use of an article which makes them talkative, while the other sex, excited in the same manner, and rendered talkative in the same manner, by the use of another article, is to be considered sober?

I am for encouraging social visits—ay, and social feasts, too-if conducted on christian principles. Perhaps it is even desirable that woman, shut out of active life as she is, should expend a larger share of voluntary power than man, through the muscles concerned in speech; but is it desirable that she should intoxicate herself in order to excite her talkative or risible faculties? And if she does so, must not every considerate person regard

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it as a manifest breach, not only of decorum, but of sobriety?

But this giddy, noisy mirth, as I have already intimated, may be excited by eating to excess, or by eating things improper to be eaten. The gluttonous are as truly guilty of a breach of sobriety as those who abuse themselves by improper drinks.

I have seen young married ladies who seemed to regard their new condition as a species of imprisonment, and the duties of a household as mere penance. They would attend to them, perhaps, if they could not help it; but as to finding anything like enjoyment in them, they did not. They were only happy when they were skipping, romping and capering, or at least gadding. Their levity even extended so far, in some cases, as to excite feelings in their companions against which it was their highest duty, no less than their deepest interest, to guard. Here, too, was a want of what I call sobriety. There was the absence of that 66 steadiness, seriousness, carefulness, and propriety of conduct" which, in a young wife, are exceedingly becoming, and without which, I can never regard her as a truly sober woman.

Sobriety, in short, is a word of extensive import. There are those who go not beyond the strictest bounds of propriety in the use of meats and drinks and company, who are yet very far from being

habitually sober and discreet. Nor is sobriety synonymous with gravity;—still less, with anything which approximates to melancholy. There is a happy medium between levity and melancholy, that, even in youth and middle age, falls somewhat short of that gravity, to which the young wife should aspire. It always pleases, cheers, improves, adorns, exalts. It is favorable to health, peace, social comfort, happiness and piety.