His garments are thread-bare and patched--his eyes are inflamed,
sunken and watery--his countenance bloated and livid--his limbs
swelled and tottering. Although but in the morning of his manhood,
yet the lines of premature old age and decrepitude are deeply carved
upon his pale, dejected face; and in his whole aspect, there is that
forlorn, broken-spirited, anguished look of despair, which shows he
himself feels that he has sunken, beyond earthly redemption, into
the awful pit of the confirmed drunkard! This is the young man whose
early opportunities were so favorable, and whose prospects were so
bright and flattering. He has become a curse to himself, he has
brought disgrace and wretchedness on his connections, and is an
outcast and vagabond, with whom no young man who now hears me would
associate for a single hour!

What has brought him to this pitiable condition--this state of utter
wretchedness? It was a want of forethought. He totally neglected the
considerations I have endeavored to impress upon the young. He was
careless and indifferent in regard to his associates. He would not
be admonished to turn from the company of the vicious, and seek the
society of those of good habits and upright character. Despite
the counsel of parents and friends, he would associate with
companions of corrupt habits--with the profane, the drinking,
the Sabbath-breaking--those whose chief delight was to visit
oyster-cellars and grog-shops--whose highest ambition was to excel
in cards, and dice, and sleight-of-hand tricks--and who sought for
no better employment than to range the streets and alleys, to engage
in midnight adventures and Bacchanalian revelries. Mingling with
such as his associates, and falling unavoidably into their habits,
he is now reaping the _bitter_--BITTER fruits of his folly. His time
misspent--character destroyed--health ruined--every source of