for those who have been among the earliest, and who have taken an active part in an enterprise which looked to the greatest good of the individual, and the truest happiness of the state. The first name on the list is Samuel Dexter, it being an autograph subscription to the constitution. Then follow the names of the venerable John Lathrop, of Isaac Rand, Elisha Ticknor, Jeremiah Evarts, Samuel Parkman, Caleb Strong, John Brooks, John Warren, Joshua Fisher, Dudley A. Tyng, Nathan Dane, Joshua Huntington. I need not extend the catalogue. These are all dead. Some of them lived long enough to lend the influence of their character and attainments-of their intellectual, moral, and religious excellence to a cause most dear to them, but died almost in its earliest infancy, when its spirit, and whole character was not understood, and when its sincerest friend of them all, could hardly even have hoped for its subsequent most extraordinary success. But was there not a deep, a sure promise in a cause which had such men among its founders? If it needed any claim on the strongest interest, the widest patronage of the kindred minds of our day, with what eloquence, what power, might it not make its appeal? Who would not be associated with such men, in such a cause? In itself full of moral dignity, with the noblest object in view, how does it come to us from its very cradle, strong and manly in those who gave it birth? It might have failed. The hope of the philanthropist might have died in the utter defeat of the enterprise, but this would not have altered the character of the attempt. fanaticism in it, no endeavor to accomplish what was beyond human power, there was nothing petty nor trifling in it,-it was full of solemnity, full of dignity; for it was the active direction of the spiritual nature to the removal of an evil which, in its very self, tends to the destruction of the moral and the intellectual. We are not surprised, then, that such men took such a part in the temperance enterprise; we might be, that the attempt was not made before. But here we are presented with an interesting fact in moral history, and which has many kindred ones in its records, viz.: that the existence, and the constant and

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immense pressure of an evil, are not the only circumstances that set the mind to work to attempt its removal. It may be, and is seen, and felt, for years. It has come home to a thousand hearts with its saddest truths,-it has suggested, nay, it may be, pressed the question, how is this vast evil to be removed? But no answer has been given. The oracle here has been dumb,—or if it has uttered any response, it has been to tell how hopeless were effort, and to teach the best lesson of patience it may. At length, however, a mind is reached, rarely a state or a community, and the revelation is made, of the nature of the evil, and of the vast importance of looking for a remedy. From a mind thus illuminated, and it may be almost unconsciously to the individual how, or from whence, the light came, from this central point, beams irradiate every where; they fall upon, and warm, and enlighten other, and kindred minds, and these in their turn add to the illumination, until at length a nation emerges from its darkness,-feels how true is the cause which is presented to it, and what are its claims on its best regard Much of all this is slowly brought about. The explanation of this is not difficult. A change in the habits and manners of a people, or of a class of any people, is always slow in its accomplishment. Such a change as this Society proposed, was of all others the most difficult. The temperate man felt in no danger of becoming intemperate, and the intemperate had voluntarily removed himself from the power, and almost the reach, of moral influence. There was yet another, but then a small class, composed of individuals who wholly refrained from the use of ardent spirits, not out of regard to the great principles of our day, for they were not then known, but from the single circumstance that they had no desire for such indulgence. From this, and from the first class alluded to, the enterprise could look for but little, if any, aid, and from them both it had to encounter along with indifference, some ridicule, and some contempt.

But whatever were the discouragements, there were circumstances at the time, exceedingly favorable to the undertaking, and for which we can never be too grateful. Compared with

our own, the times were remarkable for wanting a great number and variety of topics of absorbing interest. Societies, or associations of both sexes, and of almost all ages, for all sorts of objects, did not then exist as now. Parties were not then springing up full of zeal, and full of exclusiveness, which could hardly look at or tolerate what was not exactly after their creed, and which, at once, created opposite parties, full of their zeal of opposition, and quite as violently exclusive in their way. The mass of men, often the well principled, and highly cultivated, were not placed in the position of mere spectators, disinterested, indeed, and, as we find them, often uninterested spectators of what might be doing, or speculators merely about what was coming next; while the reckless of another class, might be looking on to enjoy the discomfiture of something which, if wholly successful, might interfere with some of their own pursuits. There was less hazard, in such a state of things, of fatal breaches among those who were associated for the same object, by experiments of the novel amid the very best operation and success of what was well known. There were two great parties in politics indeed, and religion had its zealous sects. But men stood shoulder to shoulder in the support of their political principles, and the adhesion of the religious sectarian was never

more true.

While the circumstances of the times are to be regarded as favorable for the beginning of the temperance enterprise, they also explain the character which the enterprise assumed or appeared under, and the means which were adopted to accomplish its objects. This character was strictly a moral one. A moral evil of immense extent, and awful amount existed, and it was discovered that in moral means only, or most surely, was its remedy to be found.

How wisely did this cause begin. It came forth with a declaration of its respect for the moral nature, for it made its appeal to that nature. It built its hopes here for its lasting success. It declared the great truth that for every moral evil, God had provided a moral remedy. But for this harmony, this native

correspondence between the deepest wants of our nature, seen as it is, in every thing belonging to us, and in the arrangements of providence for supplying them, how hopeless had been this and other enterprises, for obviating the greatest evils, and for raising men from the lowest degradation. What other force than a moral one could have been employed against such an evil as intemperance? Physical restraint has been talked of, and doubtless it has been salutary. Its application, however, has been made only to individual cases, and under other circumstances, and for different ends than the recovery of the individual from his ruinous habits. Some graver delinquency than habitual drunkenness, and graver to the public, because its interests were involved, has been the main cause for such applications of the law as have ended in taking away from the drunkard the exercise of personal liberty. Attempts have indeed been made to render penal the traffic in distilled liquors. But, it is apprehended, that legal enactments of this character might not have aided the progress of a moral reform. What are such enactments,—what is a law, but a simple and authoritative expression of the moral sentiment of a people? A court is but the organ by which this is made known and applied. The law itself is in the mind, the heart; is, if I may so say, the mind, the heart of a people, and is declaring itself less formally indeed, but not the less cogently in all that we think, attempt and do, of a strictly moral nature, in all our relations with others. What people is there, and what people have as yet been, whose moral state has been such as to give being to such law, for the removal of a moral evil?-and if such a people ever should be, such a condition would make such enactments unnecessary. No. Let the labor of the friends of temperance be to enlighten and elevate public sentiment in regard to the great matter of their concern. Let moral truth, the great remedy, and true respect for others, be in their hearts, on their lips, and in all their writings. This is the power whereby to move the moral Lworld.

What was the principal object in the formation of this

Society, in its first days, and which continued to be so through a considerable period of its history, has been shown from its records. It was the suppression of intemperance. The means adopted for this end, were precisely such as we should look for from the character of its founders. They consisted in sending circulars to all clergymen throughout the Commonwealth, setting forth the importance of the objects of the society, and inviting and requesting them to form associations for the same object in their several societies. In the next place, public addresses, sermons, tracts, and circulars, were extensively distributed, in support of temperance, and setting forth the unmixed evil of intemperance. Finally, petitions and memorials were addressed to the selectmen of towns, calling on them in the most solemn manner to bring their best aid to a cause which so deeply involved the happiness of communities,-praying them to diminish the number of licenses granted, by con fining them strictly within the limits prescribed by the law.

Such were the means by which this Society sought to enlighten and direct public sentiment. It believed that it must, in time, have that sentiment on its side, if it did not attempt to distract it by rapid or questionable measures; in other words, by hurrying into ground which was in no sense prepared for its growth. For this there were many reasons, though they may never have been formally recognized in the course so wisely pursued. Let us name one, for it contains all the rest. The founders of the society wanted light on the greatest of all questions which could come before them, viz.: what are the truest, best principles on which this enterprise shall be conducted. In short, on what principles does it mainly rest. On these questions how little light had been shed. The anatomy and physiology of intemperance were then scarcely known. Few, if any experiments had then been made to ascertain the precise effects of alcohol on the organs of the body, either in regard to their structure, or their functions. The direct connection between moderate drinking, and intemperance, or the extreme liability of the production of the last by the first,-were but vaguely