Sir Walter Raleigh to his Son

White Ribbon, Volume 5, Issue 53, 1 November 1899, Page 4

Sir Walter Raleigh to his Son

Take especial care that thou delight not in wine, for there was never any man that caine to honour or preferment that loved it. For it transformed a man into a beast, decayed health, poisoneth the breath, destroyed natural heat, brings a man's stomach to an artificial heat, deformed the face, rotteth the teeth, and, to conclude, maketh a man contemptible, soon old, and despised of all wise and worthy men, hated in thy servants, in thyself and companions, for it is a bewitching and infectious vice. And remember my words, that it were better for a man to be subject to any vice than to it; for all other vices* and sins are recovered, but a drunkard will never shake off the delights of beastliness. For the longer

IT POSSESSKTH A MAN the more he* will delight in it, and the older he groweth the more he shall be subject to it, for it dulleth the spirits and destroyed the body as ivy doth an old tree, or as the worm that engendered in the kernel of the nut. Take

heed, therefore, that such a cureless canker pass not thy youth, nor such a beastly infection thy old age, for then shall all thy life be but as the life of a beast and after thy death thou shalt only leave a shameful infamy to thy posterity, who shall study to forget that such an cne was their father. Anarchis saith: “ The first draught served for health, the second for pleasure, the third for shame, and the fourth for madness.” But in youth there is not so much as one draught permitted, for it putteth FIRE TO FIRE and wasteth the natural heat. And therefore, except thou desire to hasten thy end, take this for a general rule, that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body by wine or spice, for the sooner thou beginnest to help nature the sooner she will forsake thee and trust altogether to art. “ Who have misfortune,” saith Solomon, “ who have sorrows and griefs, who have trouble without fighting, strifes without cause, and faintness of eyes ? Even they that sit at wine and chain themselves to empty cups.” —.