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FIRESIDE EDUCATION. |
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it acquires over the mind, is afforded in the anecdote of an Indian who was met at the rapids of Niagara by some travellers. He asked them for spirits, of which their servant had a bottle. It was agreed that he should have this if he would swim into the rapids and hack again, a little above the falls. To this he consented, and. taking the bottle with him, ventured in. He went to the required distance, and then attempted to return. But the current was too strong; for several minutes, he strove desperately for the shore, but without gaining a single inch. His strength gradually gave way, and he began to yield to the overmaster-in" tide. Finding that the strife was vain and his fate inevitable, he yielded to the current, and. rising above the wave, put the upturned bottle to his lips, and in this attitude plunged over the roaring fall ! Alas ! how often has it happened that persons, without the excuse of this untutored savage, have been tempted to their graves by the love of liquor, and. while hovering on the very brink of eternity, have shown that they thought more of the thirsty lip than the immortal soul!
If such be the vice of intemperance, and if just views of its enormity have become current among us, and if the habit of taking stimulat- |
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