The sick man whose physician prescribed for him a quart of herb-tea as
the only thing that would save him, and who replied that he was gone,
then, for he held but a _pint_, was no Bavarian; for the most modest
Bavarian girl would not feel alarmed in regard to her capacity, if
ordered to drink a gallon,--certainly not, if the liquid were beer.
The aggregate labor performed in this branch of popular industry is thus
seen at a glance. But how is this done, and by whom? What is the noise
or noiselessness with which such torrents of this foaming liquid rush
daily through the channels of human bodies made originally too small to
admit half the quantity? What are the final results upon body, mind, and
heart of the present and future of the race? Does government encourage,
stimulate, control, and turn to account this national appetite? These
questions invite, and will well repay, a few moments' attention.
I once heard a college student announce as the text of his oration
Lindley Murray's well-known definition of the verb,--a word which
signifies "to be, to do, or to suffer"; and he followed up his
announcement by a most beautiful and conclusive argument to show that
this definition describes with equal accuracy three classes of men into
which the whole world may be divided: a class who have no purpose in
life but simply "to be"; an active class, whose mission is "to do," to
which they bend all their energies; and a passive class, who merely
"suffer" themselves to be employed as the tools of the men of action.
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