It seems passing strange that even our moral feelings should be liable to abuse; but it is so, even with the best.  Benevolence and charity may be misplaced or be in excess of our means.  They assume the shape of vices in the form of prodigality and extravagance.  The honest desire to acquire the necessities of life or the means for moral and intellectual improvement may in excess become cupidity or covetousness, and lead even to the appropriation of what is not our own.  Kleptomania is met with in the book-worm or the antiquarian, as well as in the feminine lover of dress or those in poverty and distress.  Firmness may become obstinacy; the justifiable love of self may, by abuse, become pride; and a proper and chaste wish for the approbation of others may be turned into the most absurd of vanities.  Even religion itself may be carried to uncharitableness, fanaticism and persecution.  Still more strange it must appear that even the intellectual faculties should be liable to abuse; but it is part of the pains and penalties of the constitution of man that it should be so.  It is so to teach us that moderation is wisdom and the only conduct that leads to health and happiness.

The abuse of the moral faculties is directly injurious; that of the intellectual faculties mostly so in an indirect manner.  Such abuses are more hurtful by the influence they have upon the conduct than they have upon the intellect itself.  If a man’s judgment is unsound, for example, it leads to deleterious consequences, not only to himself, but to others.  If the powers of observation are weak, and a person is deficient in the capacity of judging of form, distance or locality, he will be incapacitated from success in many pursuits of life without his suffering thereby, except in an indirect manner.  The imagination, the noblest manifestation of intellect, may, without judgment, be allowed to run riot, or abused by its exaltation; and with the faculty of wonder may lead to superstition, fanaticism and folly.  The intellectual faculties may be altogether weak or almost wanting.  In such cases we have foolishness merging into idiocy.

The examples here given of use, as opposed to neglect, misuse, or abuse, are simply illustrative of the point in question.  They might be extended in an indefinite degree, especially if it were proposed to enter into details.  They will, however, suffice for the purpose in view, which is to show that the use of all the powers and faculties granted to us by the Creator is intended for our benefit, and is conducive to health, happiness and longevity, but that their neglect or their abuse leads to misery, pain, affliction, disaster and disease.

The lesson to be conveyed is that moderation is essential in all things.  Why is it that the sickly and the ailing sometimes survive the strong and hearty?  Because suffering has taught the former moderation, whilst the sense of power leads the latter to excesses which too often prove fatal.  Everyone has, in his experience, known instances of the kind.