Mr. Ridley had met the reverend doctor twice, and had been much pleased with him.  What he had heard him say about the healthy or rather saving influences of pure wine had taken a strong hold of his thoughts, and he had often wished for an opportunity to talk with him about it.  On this evening he found that opportunity.  Soon after his arrival at the house of Mr. Birtwell he saw Mr. Elliott in one of the parlors, and made his way into the little group which had already gathered around the affable clergyman.  Joining in the conversation, which was upon some topic of the day, Mr. Ridley, who talked well, was not long in awakening that interest in the mind of Mr. Elliott which one cultivated and intelligent person naturally feels for another; and in a little while, they had the conversation pretty much to themselves.  It touched this theme and that, and finally drifted in a direction which enabled Mr. Ridley to refer to what he had heard Mr. Elliott say about the healthy effect of pure wine on the taste of men whose appetites had become morbid, and to ask him if he had any good ground for his belief.

“I do not know that I can bring any proof of my theory,” returned Mr. Elliott, “but I hold to it on the ground of an eternal fitness of things.  Wine is good, and was given by God to make glad the hearts of men, and is to be used temperately, as are all other gifts.  It may be abused, and is abused daily.  Men hurt themselves by excess of wine as by excess of food.  But the abuse of a thing is no argument against its use.  If a man through epicurism or gormandizing has brought on disease, what do you do with him?  Deny him all food, or give him of the best in such quantities as his nutritive system can appropriate and change into healthy muscle, nerve and bone?  You do the latter, of course, and so would I treat the case of a man who bad hurt himself by excess of wine.  I would see that he had only the purest and in diminished quantity, so that his deranged system might not only have time but help in regaining its normal condition.”

“And you think this could be safely done?” said Mr. Ridley.

“That is my view of the case.”

“Then you do not hold to the entire abstinence theory?”

“No, sir; on that subject our temperance people have run into what we might call fanaticism, and greatly weakened their influence.  Men should be taught self-control and moderation in the use of things.  If the appetite becomes vitiated through over-indulgence, you do not change its condition by complete denial.  What you want for radical cure is the restoration of the old ability to use without abusing.  In other words, you want a man made right again as to his rational power of self-control, by which he becomes master of himself in all the degrees of his life, from the highest to the lowest.”