gouty affections; have returned to untroubled sleep and digestion;
and, notwithstanding the advance of old age (I am now 77), have
retained the power of mental application, with only this abatement
perceptible to myself, that a given task requires a somewhat longer
time than in fresher days. Though the sedentary life of a student is
not very favourable to the maintenance of muscular vigour, it has not
yet forbidden me the annual delight of reaching the chief summits of
the Cairn Gorm mountains during my summer residence in Inverness. I
will only add that I have never found the slightest difficulty,
physical or moral, in an instantaneous change of habit to complete
abstinence. Instead of feeling any depressing want of what I had
relinquished, I have found a direct refreshment and satisfaction in
the simpler modes of life. Few things, I believe, do more, at a
minimum of cost, to lighten the spirits and sweeten the temper of
families and of society, than the repudiation of artificial
indulgences.

JAMES MARTINEAU.
December 1, 1882.




DR. HENRY MAUDSLEY.


I don't consider alcohol or tobacco to be in the least necessary or
beneficial to a person who is in good health; and I am of opinion that
any supposed necessity of one or the other to the hardest and best
mental or bodily work, by such a person, is purely fanciful. He will