Page:Susanna Wesley (Clarke 1886).djvu/71

 the next five or six months of Mrs. Wesley's life nothing is recorded; so they were probably passed in as much quietude and comfort as she had ever known. In May she wrote a letter to her eldest son, which shows that what we now call teetotalism was not among the austere virtues practised either in her own circle or that in which her boy lived.

"DEAR SAMMY,

"You cannot imagine how much your letter pleased me wherein you tell me of your fear lest you should offend God ; though, if you state the case truly, I hope there is no danger of doing it in the matter you speak of.

"Proper drunkenness does, I think, certainly consist in drinking such a quantity of strong liquor as will intoxicate, and render the person incapable of using his reason with that strength and freedom as he can at other times. Now there are those that, by habitually drinking a great deal of such liquors, can hardly ever be guilty of proper drunkenness, because