Select Temperance Tracts

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

27146

Title

Select Temperance Tracts

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

A powerful 19th-century compilation of temperance tracts by the American Tract Society, featuring medical warnings, moral arguments, and personal testimonies against alcohol. The collection exposes the physical, mental, and social devastation caused by intemperance, urging immediate repentance and abstinence.

Summary up to 500 words

Published by the American Tract Society, *Select Temperance Tracts* serves as a harrowing indictment of ardent spirits, compiling diverse voices to argue that alcohol is an unnecessary vice that destroys health, wealth, and souls. The anthology opens with a medical and moral analysis by Dr. Benjamin Rush, who details the immediate and chronic effects of distilled liquors. Rush describes the prompt symptoms of drunkenness, ranging from unusual garrulity and quarrelsomeness to immodest actions and temporary madness. He further outlines the chronic physical toll, including liver decay, jaundice, dropsy, consumption, epilepsy, gout, and eventual madness. Rush argues that these diseases are often mortal and that the body's deterioration is evident even in dissection, with contracted fibers and ossified tendons. He emphasizes that the practice is not necessary, citing the longevity and health of the New England fathers who abstained, and warns that habitual use inevitably leads to intemperate appetites that destroy the user and their descendants. The collection expands on these physical arguments with vivid accounts of social and domestic ruin. Several tracts depict the bankruptcy of farmers, the stripping of city houses to pay tavern debts, and the moral corruption of distillers and retailers who knowingly traffic in a deadly poison. One powerful narrative, *The Eventful Twelve Hours*, illustrates the domestic devastation caused by a drunkard, showing a family starving while the father seeks drink, and a wife dying of a broken heart. The text argues that the traffic in spirits is a form of manslaughter, with makers and venders bearing responsibility for the ruin of families and the death of thousands. Amidst this grim portrayal of destruction, the anthology offers a message of hope through the story of Jonathan Kittredge. He recounts the miraculous conversion of a notorious drunkard and infidel who, after a series of near-fatal accidents and spiritual struggles, found redemption. This narrative illustrates that redemption is possible for even the most hardened sinner. The tracts urge readers to abandon the practice of drinking to avoid eternal ruin and to support their neighbors in sobriety. By presenting both the terrifying consequences of intemperance and the possibility of divine mercy, the work calls for immediate repentance and a collective effort to clear society of this deadly evil.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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Categories

• Religion