16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
of these palliatives, which so soon become
habitual. Look what happened to poor
Padeen, and the way we are obliged to keep
the laudanum under lock and key. Look at the
spirit-room in this ship, the only holy of holies,
necessarily guarded day and night. In one of
my parishes there are no less than seven alehouses
and some of them sell uncustomed
spirits. I hope to put all or at least some of
them down. Dram-drinking is the curse of the
nation. Sometimes I turn a sermon in my
mind, urging my hearers to bear their trials, to
rely on their own fortitude, on fortitude from
within, rather than their muddy ale, tobacco,
or dram-drinking.'
'If a man has put his hand into boiling water,
is he not to pull it out?'
'Certainly he is to pull it out – a momentary
action. What I deprecate is the persistent indulgence.'