Temperance and Education by Mark Hopkins
Author: Unknown
Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Making of America Books Basic | Boolean | Proximity |

Bibliographic | Search History

UMDL Texts home U of M login View bookbag your bookbag has 0 items

Home Search BrowseHelp

list of all pages | add to bookbag

Title:Temperance and education; or, The relation of the social drinking customs to the educational interests of the nation. By Mark Hopkins, D.D.

Author:Hopkins, Mark, 1802-1887.

Availability:These pages may freely searched and displayed.

Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact umdl-info@umich.edu for more information.

Print Source:Temperance and education; or, The relation of the social drinking customs to the educational interests of the nation.

By Mark Hopkins, D.D.

Hopkins, Mark, 1802-1887.

33 p. 15 p.

New York,

The National temperance society,

1876.

Page A view page image

‘1 b8(> J&e&, itu)~‘01@ ()t t1/R e;.oe~((( 1j} be k1 (,i.’,)bS )totG (1
al.}Itc {sol()1( fi(“1.~~~~~feie~~~~~~~~~~~~~t8~~~~. _ t ~,atoi o k. - ti e CAation.. NEW YORK: The National Temperance-Society, NO. 58 READE

STREET. 1876. I BMr Mark weg - ob~

Page B view page image

MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS. Bacchlus Dethroned: a Prize Essay. By LI rederick Powell………………….. $1 The Bases of the Temperance Eeform. By tIes. Dawson Burns…………….. 1 Bound Volume of Sermons…………………………………………………. Forty Years’ 1 ight with thle Drink leinon. Bv l)r. Charics,Jewett………….

I Drops of Water. 56 New.Temperance Poems. Iy Ella WVheeler……………

Four Plillars of Temperance. By John W. Kirton……………………..

‘flThe l our Pillars are: lReason, Science, Scripture, and lExperience Alcohol: Its Natui-c ai d Effects. By (iChailes A. Stoy,………….

Scripture restitmony against Inltoxicating Wine. By Rev. *Im. Ritchie,,f Scotland………………………………………….. B13ibie tilel of Templelance; or. Total Alstinence from all Intoxicating Drinks. l’y (corge Dueied, I)…………………………………………………

Alcohol: Its Place and Power. By James MAliller. And the t se and Abuse of Tobacco. Iy Jolin Lizais…………………………. 1 Delavan’s (Consideration of the Temperance Argumient and His, tory 1………..

Temperance tAnecdlotes. By G. W.

Bungay………………….1……………. rhe ational Te.nperance Orator. By Miss L. Penney……………………… 1 The Teiiperance Speaker. By J. N. Stearns………………………………..

Comnmnunion \Wine and Bible Temperance. Ly Rev.‘Vm. t. Thayer. Paper, - 20
cents.

cloth…………………………………………………………

Bible Wines-, or, Laws of Fermentation and oine s of the Ancients. by Rev.

W illhan Patton, D.D. Paper, 80 cents; cloth……………………….

Bound Voluii, of Tracts. Nos. 1 and 2, e a ch………….1…………..

Text-Book of Temnperance. By Dr. F. R. L
ees……………………………… I ‘Teniperance ( limes. By William D. Bradbury and J. N. Ste,arns. Comprising 12t pp. of Songs, Hymns, Glees, etc., set to appropriate music. Papier cover-s, single copies 30 cents; $25 per 100. In board covers, single copies, 35 cenlts; I)er 10……………………………………………………….4

Bugle Notes for the Temperance Aimy. By W. F. Sherwin and J. I. ~tea-ns.

1‘8 pp of New and Popular Music. Paper. cover, 30 cents single cc,py; $”

f) pet-l 0). P,oard cover, cents; per

P………………………………….: Teiperanece Hymiin-tiook.

Paper, 12 cents; boards………………………. ackagc of As,;o-ted Tracts. Nos. 1 aid 2. 250 pp. Each………………….. lackage of 7’

Cilarel’s Tracts……………………………………………

Pa,cket of Prohibition Documents. 250
pp…………………………………. C’amupaign Teniperance Ilyin-‘ook. 24 pp. Per 100……………………… THE YOUTH’S

TE.-PERANCE A, INZER. ‘The l’ational Temperance Society and Publication louse publish a beautifuli Illus,rated Monthly Paper, especiallv adapted to children anid youth. Sunlday-Sch= and Javenile Temperance Organizations. Jacl number contains several chlioi. engravings, a piece of mnusic, and a great variety ot articles from the pens of t’ best writers for chlildren in Aimer ica. It should Le placed in the hands of eve.

chiill in the land. The Congre,ss of the United States has passed a law that the postage on papers sent ttil,‘lghl the mails afte r the 1st of January, 18i,3 nust be paid in s vance at thla office where t’he paper is published. Terms, Cash in Advancc, Including Postage. Single copy, one year, 5 orty. t u ddre,..b Eight, to one address,. 108 Fifty,. 6 Twenty,.

2 70 One Isn -. 18 THE NATIONAL TEIvIPERANCE ADVOCATE. The National Temnperance Society and Publication llouse publish a ne Monthly Tempe ance Paper, the obiject of whichi i3 to Iro.no’c thle interests of ttl cause of Tenmpierance lby disseiiinuat,i liiit fromin every (liarter uponi its ieore soci al, financial, all( seientiic b’earins. The best talent in the landl will be s(ecure for its editors and coitrilbutors. Single copy, one -“ar, $1 10: 0) copies, to one a dress, o$10; 20 copies, to one address.

aI: a vll OV-.5’ copies, at 90 c’,‘its per cop which includies postage.

A\(tii’ss J. N. STEARNS. Publishing Agent. 58 Radle St., New York.

Page 1 view page image

TEMPERANCE ….. A:D = EDUCATION; OR, Gloe P,elation of the Soceal Drinking Ctstomns to tlhe.Educational Interests of the Nation. HOPKINS, D.D. NEW YORK: The National Temperance Society, NO. 58 READE STREET. I876.

BY MARK

Page 2 view page image

[The following Ipaper was kindly prepared by Dr. Hopxr-s, by special invitation, for the openinmg of a series of parlor conferences or conversaziones, under the auspices of the National Temperaince Society. It was read by the author oil the evening of December 23, 1875, in the l)arlors of the Hion. Wmr. E. DOI)GE, President of the Society, and listened to with profound attention by a large number of guests, including iany distinguished representatives of the professional aI(l mercantile life of the metropolis.]

Page 3 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. I AI desired to open this coin versation by somie remarks on ” tihe relation of the social drink ing customs to the educational interests of the nation.” This, I suppose, I am asked to do fromi my long connection with education. It is just fifty’years this autumin since I first went to Williams College as an instructor, and, withl the exception of three years, I have been there since 3 co Ca

Page 4 view page image

4 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. thirty-six years as president. For several years I was the oldest president in office in the country. I may be supposed, therefore, to know something about education; but about the drinking customs of society I know very little; and to treat a double subject of this sort well it would seem necessary to know both parts of it. But I have no statistics; I have collected no facts. The evils of intemperance I have known, but how far they have originated in social drinking customs I have not known. I remember well the first move.

Page 5 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EiDUCATION. inent in Williamstown and in the college on the subject of temuperance. It was, I think, as early as 1832 or 1833. There were two hotels in the place, both selling liquor as a matter of course, and three or four stores that retailed several hogsheads each annually. No one seemed to suppose the traffic wrong. But one Sabbath Dr. Hewitt, then of Bridgeport, preached two tremendouLs’ sermons on the subject; and now note the effect of a trained conscience when it is enlightened. The next day both hotels and every store in 5

Page 6 view page image

6 TEMPER&NCE AND EDUCATION. town stopped selling. I have never known such an effect produced by any discourse, or any two discourses, before or since. The effeit of those discourses is felt in the town to this day. A public sentiment was created that has never died out. For a long time the traffic was wholly suppressed, and has never been resumed in the stores since. Dr. Griffin, then president of the college, a grand man, six feet four inches high and well proportioned, fond of a good dinner, and accustomed to have wine with it,

Page 7 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. gave up his wine at once. A society was formed in the college, and what could be done by moral suasion was done. After that, attention was drawn to the evils of drinking in the college as it had not been before; and since that time it has not ceased to be watched and guarded against. At one time the trustees passed a law requiring every student entering college to pledge himself not to use intoxicating drink during termtime and on college ground. This law was in force for a numiber of years, but it was found that the 7

Page 8 view page image

8 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. consciences of studeints-many of them, at least were very elastic in regard to a pledge which they regarded as enforced; and the attempt to isolate the college by placing it under a different social law from that of the general community was abandoned. The fact that the college could i-ot be thus isolated shows two tb+ gs. It shows the community I)f interest that runs through all parts of the social fabric, as through an organized body. This community of interest must alwvays exist in some degree, but it becomes

Page 9 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. fuller and more vital as intelli gence and the power of the press and facilities of intercourse are in creased. The fact that we cannot thus isolate a college shows also that we cannot treat this subject of drinking customs and their effects in a satisfactory way if we regard as education simply that which is technically so called. By education we commonly mean t h at process for whic h special pro vision is mad e in teachers, and building,s, and books, and appara tus, and which has f or its object to fit young persons for their posi .. :….’.:….. 9

Page 10 view page image

10 TEMPEPRANCE AND EDUCATION. tions in life. But there is a broader view.

Taking the term in its wider sense, it will include everythlling that has exerted a forinative influence, and has caused a iyoung person to be, at a given point, what lhe is. If we place before us a young man, say of twenty-one, whose education is said to be comupleted, and technically is so, we ask, the coimmunity ask, respecting himn, two questions. One is, What is he. and the other is, Whlat can lie do? What is lie in his character, his principles, his disposition, his ha-. ‘..’…’

Page 11 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. bits, his tendencies? What can lie do? Can he plead a cause, or keep books, or build a bridge or a railroad, or run one?

These two questions we ask, and according to qur answer to them we estimate the prospects of the young man. If now we ask how he came to be what he is, and to be able to do what he can do, we shall need to consider four things. One is the constitution and tendencies he inhlerited firom his parents; the second is the family and social in fluences by whlichl lhe was surrouLnded; the third is formal teaching 11

Page 12 view page image

12 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. ill schools and colleges, coimmonly called education; and the fourth is that inscrutable will-power that belongs to every rational and accountable being, through which lhe is able to modify or control results, whatever the original constitution, or social influences, or positive in struction may have been. Of the great influence of the first of these-inherited constitution and tendencies-there can be no doubt. (God seems to have arranged the constitution of the race in a way to bring the most powerful influences possible to bear on those

Page 13 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. who were to perpetuato it to do what they could to improve it, or at least not to deteriorate it. It may seem hard that the iniquities of the parents should be visited on the children; but in no other way could the laws of temperance be so powerfully enforced. Let parents see, as they must, that not only constitutions generally puny and feeble are inherited, but also a tendency to consumption, a tend ency to insanity, a tendency to drunkenness, and the whole power of parental affection, as well -as of self-interest, will work to dissuade 13

Page 14 view page image

1‘4 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. them friom any form of vicious in dulgence.

It is not, yoLu will observe, the consLumption, or the insanity, or the drunkenness that is inherited, buit the tendtency to these. That tendency may or lmtay not be overcome. There the wvill powver may come in; but thle child enters upon life under conditions far less favorable than it would othlerwise, If intemperate parents could blast onlv their own lives and have it stop there, it would be comparatively little; but to send needless -weakness, and exposure, and degradation down to

Page 15 view page image

TEMPEREANCE AND IEDUCATION. 15 successive generations is fearful. To do this for the sake of any tenl porary pleasure is lilke the wickednes lately discovered of putting al infernal muachine on board a steam er tlhat would blow it up in mid ocean for thle sake of the insurance.

Looking, then, at our supposed younllg mlan, we cannot doubt the great influence upon himn, bohl in wvhat he is and in w-hat hle can do, of his inherited constitution and tendencies. But as these were originally given, and could not be affected by us, they need not be considered further I

Page 16 view page image

16 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. We pass, then, to the family social influences under which he has been placed. These have suLrroLunded. him as an atmosphere, and, the constitution being given, are undoubtedly the most constant, pervasive, efficient, and moulding of all external influence in causing him to be what he is. I hold on to the distinction between being and doing; and these, I say, are the influences most likely to have been efficient in causing himn to be what he is. So God intended it should be.

For the same reason that he has established the law of

Page 17 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATIO0N. heredity, by vwhich the lparents becomet responsible for the constinuti’,l of the child as it is born into life, las lie established what’nay be c(alled a law of social heredity, by w-liicli thie famnily becomes responsi blo for what lhe shall be at his secoild birthl into society. By a iatupral lw which hle will not ab rogate, God visits the iniquities of the fatiers upon the children. By a si,iiar lavw, identical in principle, lie visits the iniquLities of f~amilies upon society; and through both these laws he is constantly utter ing to men the broader law an 17

Page 18 view page image

18 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. nounced by our Saviour: “lkake the tree good, and the fruit will be good.” Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles The family is God’s institution, and so he honors and guards it.

He in tended it should be the seed-plot of society. Let all the families in a community be what they should be, and the community will be what it should be. This is according to the natural course of things; and then we have the promise of God for it: “Train up a child “-a c7tild, observe, not a lad of a dozen years or a miss in her teens, but

Page 19 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION X. a chil(-l” in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Childhood, early childhood, is the formative, the flexible, the impressible period. If the mind of a child can go through with all the processes by which it learns a language before it is four years old, it must also be possible to implant in it guid ing principles that shall go with it thlrough life. The training spoken of will imply more than teaching. It implies a settled, definite purpose and time given to its accomplishment. It 19

Page 20 view page image

20 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. implies example as well as precept. It wvill include the set, the drift, tihe aninus, the general spirit, of the famnily. Let the spirit of the family be one of industry, econo my, kindness, cheerfulness, tempe rance, purity, liberality, and godli niess, and the prom-iise of God will be made good, however minfa-vorable the,circumLstances may be by which they are sturrounded. When thbree young men, more than three thou send years ago, were cast into a burning fiery furnace, they were not in favorable circumstances, but they came out with no smell of fire

Page 21 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. upon them. What more unfavo rable circumstances than for a large family of boys, with no sister to exert any refining or restraining influence, to be brought up in a large city, surrounded by every form of temptation, knowing that their father had wealth, and that they were to have it; and yet I have known a family of seven boys brought up to manhood in that way, and the promise not fail in regard to one of them. The Bible does not say that if a child is not trained up in the way he should go he shall never get into it. 21

Page 22 view page image

2 2 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. There are formative influences out side the family, and there are the will-power and the Spirit of God to help; but, as in the case of leredity, the tendencies will be in the wrong direction.

As I have said, one main thing in training is the set, the drift, and general spirit of thle faimily and of the social elements around them. Let a young man rightly trained g,o to a literary institution f-om ,s,tch a fatmily t, I have indicated, and he will be almost sure neither to be a promoter of disorder nor to fall into intemperate habits. In

Page 23 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. all my experience I hacG never knowii an instance, hvlere I was sure the training lad been ri i+ ill whiclh a yoLung man has tiu; fallen. If all young muen g(iing into our literary institutions wAere to be tlhuLs trained, the institutions couLld not fail of being vwhlat they shouldcl be. Suppose, on the other hand, that tile imajoritv of the yoLung mien go firom families, repu table indleed, but worldly, faslion able, selfislh, self-indulgent, ac(crta toined to the use of wine and otlher forms of nervous stinmtlation, hlav ingl, perhaps, associated the use of 23

Page 24 view page image

24 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. wine withl gentility, and the exclusion of it and of drinking customs generally with fanaticism anld nlar rowness; and it is as certain as any lawv of nature that tlhere will be occasional disgraceful disorder amongii the young mien, and that nuimbers will form hlabits of drinkilg that will carry them down to drunkards’ graves.

Instructors’nay preachl, and exhort, and set tup wvliat barriers tlhey please; the young men are fortified against anything tlhey can do by filial Jpicty itself, to say nothing of incipient appetite and the begun work of the

Page 25 view page image

TE3IPERANCE AND EDUCATION. deceiver. God never nmeant that families shlould sinkl down into disregard of him and disobedience of lhis laws, and then be able to set upl, a system of outside institutions thatslhould make their children what they ought to be. Parents are willing to pay money-oh! yes;, but the gift of God in the results of parental faithfulness cannot be purchased with money. It is precisely at thlis point that the drinking customs of a country’ will bear upon its educational in terests. They will ensure, to a greater or less extent, the use of 2 Ahr

Page 26 view page image

-26 TEMPERANCE AXND EDUCATION. intoxicating drinkls in otir lite rary institutions. Whatev er iC ay be said of sucel use elsewhlere and in othler connections, as connec,ed, withl education thle effect is evil. In aft address, twvo years and more ago, before the National TeInperan)ce Conilvention at-Sara toga, which I gave, as I n-owv do this, at the request of the Presi dent of thle:National Temperance Society, I stated and illnstratcd. thc followiing, points in regard to tlhe yonng generally: 1st. Thllat neither alcoholic drinlks nor narcotics of any kind are

Page 27 view page image

TE3IPERANCE AND EDUCATION. needed at that period of life, either for the upbuLilding of the system or f)r enjoyment. 2d. That during this period these suibstances are especially injurious and dangerous - injurious from their effect upon the physical systemi in its formrative period; dangerous, first, from the deceptive character of these stimuilants, espe cially for the iniexperienced; and, secondly, because it is the period )f the ready formation of habits, a,ind of lhabits that are also artificial appetites. It is to the power of habit that the fearful dominion 27

Page 28 view page image

8 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. of these substances over men is generally ascribed. It is not wholly or even chiefly that. It is from that, in connection with a craving artificially produced, that is really of the nature of a disease, and which often so becomes a disease as to require medical treatment and special asylmns. 3d. It vas observed that those wvbo least need artificial stimulants a,re in the most danger from them.

Nervous persons, gifted persons, those of poetical temperament and special promise, are more likely than others to become the victims of artificial stimulation.

Page 29 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. So much for the young generally. In regard to those who devote themselves to study, some things were mentioned as peculiar. 1st. The life is sedentary, and not in the open air. Hence less power to resist or counteract the influinence of narcotics and artificial stinmLlants. 2d. That in his proper work a student has no use for his muscles, buIt must so use his brain as to drawv from them blood and nervous energy. Hence the need of avoiding everything that will impair the digestive functions or lower 29

Page 30 view page image

30 TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. the tone of muscular power, as narcotics and artificial stimulants are known to do. 3d. That life in our educational institutions is social in such a way that there is special danger through the social nature that drinking habits will be formed. 4th. That the effect of these substances is wholly antagonistic to that control of the voluntary over the involuntary powers of the mind which it is one great object of education to give. If these propositions can be -naintained-and I am sure that Th I

Page 31 view page image

TEMPERANCE AND EDUCATION. every one of them can -it must follow that the whole influence upon the educational interests of the country of intoxicating drinks, and so of the drinking customs of society, is evil.

In closing, I desire to say that I agree with Dr. Edinmutnds, of London, in saying, as he recently did in his excellent addresses in this city, that whatever is physio logically right is morally right. That doctrine I have always held. In the addresses at Saratoga already referred to, I went so far as to say that if stimulation by *.. * e ee 31

Page 32 view page image

32 TE,MPERANCE AND EDUCATION. alcohol, or tolbacco, or opium, or arsenic vwould ena,ble 11s to reach the highliest state of balanced lpowver, phlkysic~al, intellectua’l, 1nora’lt, spiri: tual, then wye are not onil v at liberty to use thliose substances but are bound to do it. This I say.

But I go further, and say that whatever is plhysiologically wIrong is niorally wrong. CWe have no rilght to do ourselves hlarm. No mIan has a right to make his body :ii instrumient of pleasuLre in such a wavy as to lowver its tone or deranuge its funcetions, or in anv way unfit it for those higher uses to -.,,,..j

Page 33 view page image

TEM[PERANCE AND EDUCATION. which it may be put in the ser vice of the rational spirit. Let men so use their bodies as best to serve the interests of their higher powers, and I am content. 33

Page 34 view page image

Powered by DLXS

To comment or inquire about content, contact moa-feedback@umich.edu To report errors, contact umdl-help@umich.edu Reprint Information for this collection