11.  Thus does drunkenness act in direct contradiction to reason, whose business it is to clear the mind of every vice which is crept into it, and to guard it against all the approaches of any that endeavour to make its entrance.  But besides these ill effects which this vice produces in the person who is actually under its dominion, it has also a bad influence on the mind, even in its sober moments, as it insensibly weakens the understanding, impairs the memory, and makes those faults habitual which are produced by frequent excesses:  it wastes the estate, banishes reputation, consumes the body, and renders a man of the brightest parts the common jest of an insignificant clown.

12.  A method of spending one’s time agreeably is a thing so little studied, that the common amusement of our young gentlemen (especially of such as are at a great distance from those of the first breeding) is drinking.  This way of entertainment has custom on its side; but as much as it has prevailed, I believe there have been very few companies that have been guilty of excess this way, where there have not happened more accidents which make against, than for the continuance of it.

13.  It is very common that events arise from a debauch which are fatal, and always such as are disagreeable.  With all a man’s reason and good sense about him, his tongue is apt to utter things out of a mere gaiety of heart, which may displease his best friends.  Who then would trust himself to the power of wine, without saying more against it, than, that it raises the imagination and depresses judgment?

14.  Were there only this single consideration, that we are less masters of ourselves when we drink in the least proportion above the exigencies of thirst:  I say, were this all that could be objected, it were sufficient to make us abhor this vice.  But we may go on to say, that as he who drinks but a little is not master of himself, so he who drinks much is a slave to himself.

15.  As for my part, I ever esteemed a drunkard of all vicious persons the most vicious:  for if our actions are to be weighed and considered according to the intention of them, what can we think of him who puts himself into a circumstance wherein he can have no intention at all, but incapacitates himself for the duties and offices of life, by a suspension of all his faculties.

16.  If a man considers that he cannot, under the oppression of drink, be a friend, a gentleman, a master, or a subject; that he has so long banished himself from all that is dear, and given up all that is sacred to him, he would even then think of a debauch with horror; but when he looks still further, and acknowledges that he is not only expelled out of all the relations of life, but also liable to offend against them all, what words can express the terror and detestation he would have of such a condition?  And yet he owns all this of himself who says he was drunk last night.