Excerpt from An Address Upon the Moral Claims of Temperance: Delivered Before the Charleston Total Abstinence Society The subject we present to your consideration this evening is tho Moral Claims of Temperance, and it will be our endeavor to trace out the peculiar obligations which these Societies carry with them, and impose upon all rational, moral, and immortal beings. Anatomists nave paid the highest encomiums upon the physical organization of man, and echoed the declaration of Holy Writ, that it was very good. If we could dissect the moral constitution, and unfolding all its wonderful arrangements, exhibit its mysterious workings in their countless relations, we would doubtless break forth, with pious Galen, in hymns of wonder and admiration, to its Great Author; or exclaim with all the rapturous fervor of Israel's inspired Minstrel: "I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" But although our complete moral structure is removed from our actual vision, and all that we can know of its organization is from its effects, together with a few bold, and striking phenomena, - we know enough, with the assistance of analogy, to assert that there are certain primary parts, which, from their intimate relation with our well being, and moral life, we term vital, - prominent among which is the virtue of Temperance. Used in its primitive signification temperance was synonymous with moderation, and as such was the keystone of all the virtues; for it was the essential condition under which each virtue could exist, or manifest itself lawfully. It regulated both the emotional existence of the virtuous principle, and its outward manifestation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.