1934 What Shall We Drink by Magnus Bredenbek

Chapter XX General Observations

Down through the centuries,since manlearned to concoct intoxicating beverages, the solemn warning has come to be ware of alcohol. The Christian Bible,the Jewish Talmud,the Mohammedan Koran, the ancient writings of Confucius, Buddha,Brahma and a host of others into the remotest days of antiquity have preached to men of the perils lurking in the convivial glass. Against their teachings the virtues of wine have been sung by the bards of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Carthage and virtually all the civihzations of the past. Medieval praise of the grape followed,even in the missals of the priesthood, although they also warned against intem perate use of the "cup that cheers." Modern praise of the nectars that go with ambrosia has not been lacking. Indeed, the battle between temperance and inordinate drinking hasgone on unabated since the first jollyfellow came staggering home to his cave dwelling until today, when his jolly descendant, with sUk topper tilted, tries vainly to find the keyhole,or,finding it, tries to open the lock with a tooth pick. Bigoted reformists have,from time to time,down through the centuries,enacted compulsory prohibitive laws,onlyto be defeated by liberalists when stern inhibitions evoked merely the evils of defiance againstlaw and authority,and compelled more enforceable rules and statutes. I am for temperate drinking. Temperate drinking makes alcohol a slave to man;intem perate drinking makes man a slave to alcohol. Only the fool permits alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, drugs or other poten tially harmful productsto enslave him. Drinking to the point that produces headaches the morning after is mhrely inviting slavery to the glass. But down through the ages has come the irrefutable and omnipresent evidence that from the ranks of those who

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