their public expositions of what is wise and right. The Board Visitors may and will prove a powerful auxiliary to their e if once they are made to perceive the attention, expectat and hope, with which religious men will regard their faithful deavors to favor true religion in the seminary. In the whole co munity, the judicious and the sober-minded, all who resp religion, all who understand that purity of morals can be s tained only by the aid of religious motives, and all who perce that public happiness cannot consist with laxity of religious opini will naturally give to the religious side of the question the ass tance of their judgment, their talents, and their personal influenc

ART. II. THE PHILOSOPHY AND INFLUENCE OF HABIT, IN I RELATION TO INTEMPERANCE.

How is it that the faculties of the drunkard become so fetter by the power of his appetite?-is a question which is oftener ask than satisfactorily answered, even at this day. We see him ofte in his sober moments, before reason and conscience have lost the dominion, calmly surveying his past conduct, deploring the strengt of his propensity, and forming resolutions of amendment. H seems fully aware of his danger,-of the bondage in which he i held, of the sickness, degradation and poverty which are befor him. He looks into the abyss which is opening to receive him and shudders at the sight. And yet, though trembling and reco ing, repenting and resolving, we see him persevere in his mac course with a dogged and fatal determination, and with as passive a surrender of the voluntary powers, as if he were a mass of matter driven by machinery. He seems proof against the most powerful motives which can be brought to bear upon a reasonable and moral being. He shows practically a perfect disregard, an entire recklessness even, of personal considerations and selfish interests. He sacrifices life, health and happiness, in mere wantonness; and thus denies himself every thing that is worthy of a wish, even in a man of pleasure. He courts wretchedness, poverty and disgrace, infirmity, disease and death, as if they were the expected sources of supreme delight. Whence this strange, this apparently unnatural preference of evil to good, of pain to pleasure? How is it that a single appetite, primarily perhaps a feeble one, is enabled in a little time to enslave every other, and to bring under its absolute authority the whole animal, intellectual, and moral nature of man?

It will be our object in the following article, in as concise and familiar a way as possible, to inquire into the origin and growth of this appetite, and to ascertain, if we can, the secret of its power.

We shall commence a search among the elements of our nature, and shall there find, if we mistake not, an ever-present and allcontrolling principle, by the aid of which we shall be able to solve mysteries, answer many difficult questions, and finally, make appear consistent and conformable to known laws, what, to superficial eyes, may seem anomalous and contradictory. This principle is the principle of association, or in terms more familiar, but not exactly synonymous,-habit; a principle which is known to have an almost unbounded influence over the thoughts, feelings and actions of men, but whose influence is even more extensive and more powerful than is generally suspected.

Ardent spirit (with some very rare exceptions,) is not naturally pleasant to the taste; it only becomes so in consequence of association. We shall, in the first place, attempt to show how this change happens.

It is a familiar truth, that an impression made on the senses, or an idea of any sort, whatever its character originally, whether pleasant or painful, or merely indifferent, will, in process of time, become either agreeable or disagreeable, as it may have formed part of a series of agreeable or disagreeable feelings. It will partake of the qualities of the thoughts with which it has ever been associated, or of the images and recollections which it calls up to the mind, whatever these may be. It does this in conformity to a fundamental law of our mental economy. An emotion never fails to give its own complexion and attributes to an object with which it has uniformly stood connected, either as an effect or concomitant, and even to diffuse itself over an entire train of related perceptions and conceptions. Thus certain objects, animate or inanimate, become beautiful or attractive to the eye, or the contrary, according to the nature of their associate ideas, or according as they revive the remembrance of health or sickness, utility or destructiveness, pleasure or pain. Thus are formed all Our stronger attachments and antipathies. Thus is contracted a love or a disgust for certain drugs, certain drinks, certain articles of food, etc. No man ever liked the taste of tobacco or opium naturally, but he likes the excitement which it produces, and for this reason takes it. He swallows it, first for its effect, but finally, not for its effect only, but also for its own sake. That which was once in itself positively disgusting, is now as positively delightful; and this, because it has been the uniform means and invariable accompaniment of delight. That this is a true account

We at present think of no antipathy more universal, or in certain cases with more difficulty traced to its origin, than that wich is entertained for some of the serpent tribe. That this is founded in association, is evinced by the fact that children manifest no such antipathy. We have knowledge of a child that was caught playing with a huge black snake!

of the matter, may be proved by a very simple experiment. Le these drugs be so managed that their effects are not pleasurable but the contrary; or in other words, let there be seen in then only the images of pain and death;-let tobacco never be use but in quantities so large as to sicken or make dizzy, and opiun except in combination with nauseating doses of tartar emetic o the like, and an appetite for them will never be acquired. Offen sive as they are to an uncorrupted taste, thus managed, they wi become even more so by use. It is well known that certai medicines, in themselves not particularly unpalatable, come to b extremely so, in consequence of frequent association with certai disagreeable effects. By the force of such associations, any o their sensible properties,-their smell, their sight, their touch ever may be made to excite disgust. We have often known the de sire of the dyspeptic for certain articles of food, changed into a indifference or loathing, merely in consequence of the physicia having pointed them out as injurious to health; thus having cause in the mind of the confiding invalid, an association of such article with the ideas of sickness and pain.

Men acquire a fondness for alcohol, on the same principle the they do for other stimulating drugs and drinks. As this substanc produces a very high degree of pleasureable excitement, it is the source of a very strong, nay, incurable attachment. Were it no for this excitement, nobody would ever gain a relish for it. Wer it used only in combination with such articles as would change it effects, and thereby prevent a customary association; were its tast as constantly the forerunner of unmixed pain, as it is now of hig animal enjoyment, it would be swallowed with as much aversion and loathing as the bitterest drug. It will be recollected by our rea ders, how a few years ago, a certain medicine, (Chambers',) whose active ingredient was tartar emetic, was recommended, (mixed with ardent spirits,) and extensively used as a sovereign cure fo intemperance, and how it failed of its promised effect. This fail ure was not owing to an erroneous principle involved in the prescription, (for it contained a correct one,) but to an under estimate of the strength of an association. In theory, the means were ad mirably adapted to the desired end, but they wanted potency They were manifestly too feeble to be put in opposition to a habi which had been strengthening, and extending its influence, and striking deeper its roots, for years. There is in the mind of the drunkard, a connection between ardent spirit and its customary and known effects, too invincibly strong to be broken by any ordinary or momentary force. There is accumulated and embodied in that one thing, (his favorite drink,) a thousand delightful remembrances and associations, which a brief series of moderate or even vigorous impressions cannot obliterate or disconnect. Chambers'

medicine, if faithfully used, is well calculated to secure against the formation of intemperate habits; but it has not power enough to break up such habits when formed, at least when taken only with the trembling resolution of a drunkard.

To say nothing of the common and dangerous practice of mixing sugar and other palatable articles with alcohol, in order to cover its taste, and cheat the senses of the inexperienced and unwary,—a practice which makes the latter an agreeable, and consequently desirable drink, until the habit of intemperance can be thoroughly formed, or until the poison comes to be loved for the sake of its effects, and still later, for its inherent or sensible properties; to say nothing of this detestable fraud practiced upon the senses, and of its melancholy consequences, there are other circumstances, in some measure accidental, and generally overlooked, which contribute in no small degree to create a relish, and subsequently an unconquerable appetite, for the drug in question. These circumstances, (the operation of which upon the mind is also to be explained by the principle of association), are to be found in the connections which ardent spirit is most often seen, (or used to be before the present temperance enterprise was begun.) It usually appears and figures largely, or formerly did, on public and exciting occasions, and among fashionable assemblies, where health, and wit, and joy, and every thing which can swell the heart, flow freely; where liberty is unrestrained; where care and sorrow are forgotten; where muSic and festivity contribute to enliven the scene and thrill the bosom. In consequence of a constant association with every occasion of great excitement and enjoyment, the intoxicating bowl comes to be regarded, according to principles already considered, not only as the inseparable companion, but finally as the sign and representative, and very substance indeed, of that with which it has so often co-existed; it reflects from its surface the objects and images of which it has only been the associate. It is these reflected beauties which catch the eye and ruin the prospects of thousands. They communicate to the poisonous draught a charm and a flavor which it would not otherwise possess. The man who has been accustomed to view ardent spirit as the inseparable accompaniment of merry hearts and smiling faces, public rejoicing and kindly salutation, convivial meetings and fashionable assemblies, will of course come to regard the former, not merely as the physical means of so much animal excitement, but as the center and source of the very delights of which it has been the mere attendant, but which have never been felt, or seen, or heard of, without it, as the impersonation, so to speak, of all those pleasures which are the almost exclusive desire of many minds. The vicious association now under consideration, has been strengthened by every expedient which ingenuity can invent, or depraved appetite suggest. A monster, (ar

dent spirit,) which ought to be viewed only with hatred and dis gust, has had thrown around it all the fascinations of music and poetry; it is represented as a god to be worshiped,-the companion of merry hearts, honorable minds, and dignified life; the sign of freedom. the source of every pleasure, the assuager of grief, the universal comforter. It is set forth in the garb of an angel, with all the decorations and attractions with which fancy can adorn it. All the arts which can entice, delude or destroy, are called into requisition, and exhausted in the work of embellishment. The praises of Bacchus you will hear chanted even in the nursery; you will find them celebrated in our national ballads,-the most durable form in which a popular sentiment ever appears. Ideas which ought never to be united, are thus permanently joined, and engraved upon the mind in imperishable characters. Associations which should only excite loathing and horror, are thus familiarized and cherished; until a vile and slimy thing, (the drunkard's god,) whose very touch is corrup tion, and whose embrace is death, is hugged to the bosom as an angel and savior. Is it strange then, that ardent spirit should be desired and sought, even before its stimulating qualities have be come known from experience?-that a love, an appetite for it, should be contracted antecedently even to its use?

Thus we have shown, and we trust satisfactorily, how alcohol comes to be loved as a drink, first on account of agreeable associations, and subsequently for its own sake. We have shown how a passion for it is formed, grows to maturity, and finally gains a mastery over all the faculties. We have shown how the taste of a thing, naturally indifferent, or even disgusting, becomes, by the force of association, highly agreeable; and we might show, in the same way, how each one of the series of mental and bodily changes, necessarily connected with the immediate gratification of the drunkard's appetite, becomes in like manner agreeable. The truth is, these changes compose a train of consecutive feelings, which are intimately united in the attainment of a common end. They bear, individually, a fixed and identical relation to certain objects, certain ultimate effects, and certain associate pleasures; so that the same law, the same remembrances, or other circumstances, that would make any one of these feelings pleasurable, would make them all so. As the result of their intimate union, they borrow the hues and attributes of one another, as well as acquire a common character from the identity of their associations. They are situated alike in all respects; each calls to mind agreeable images of the past, which are soon converted into realities: each brings along with it a separate and finally inherent delight. If the taste of brandy may become delightful because it is accompanied by the recollection of a certain kind of animal excitement, etc.; so, for the same reason, may the sight of it, the smell of it,