that mysterious chemical agent without which health is impossible,
the want of which betrays itself at once in the dull eye, the
sallow cheek--namely, light. Believe me, it is no mere poetic
metaphor which connects in Scripture, Light with Life. It is the
expression of a deep law, one which holds as true in the physical
as in the spiritual world; a case in which (as perhaps in all
cases) the laws of the visible world are the counterparts of those
of the invisible world, and Earth is the symbol of Heaven.

Deprive, then, the man of his fair share of fresh air and pure
light, and what follows? His blood is not properly oxygenated:
his nervous energy is depressed, his digestion impaired,
especially if his occupation be sedentary, or requires much
stooping, and the cavity of the chest thereby becomes contracted;
and for that miserable feeling of languor and craving he knows but
one remedy--the passing stimulus of alcohol;--a passing stimulus;
leaving fresh depression behind it, and requiring fresh doses of
stimulant, till it becomes a habit, a slavery, a madness. Again,
there is an intellectual side to the question. The depressed
nervous energy, the impaired digestion, depress the spirits. The
man feels low in mind as well as in body. Whence shall he seek
exhilaration? Not in that stifling home which has caused the
depression itself. He knows none other than the tavern, and the
company which the tavern brings; God help him!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is easy to say, God help him; but it
is not difficult for man to help him also. Drunkenness is a very
curable malady. The last fifty years has seen it all but die out
among the upper classes of this country. And what has caused the
improvement?