Page:Way to wealth, or, Poor Richard's maxims improved.pdf/24

 and murderers - our streets with prostitution? The same omnipotent Vice! He, who, by precept, whether spoken or written, shall succeed in rendering detestable, and  an inviolated virtnevirtue [sic] throughout the land, will confer on the humbler classes of society — a boon beyond all price.

No vices are so incurable as those in which men are apt to glory. One would wonder how drunkenness should have the good fortune to be of this number. Anacharsis, being invited to a match of drinking at Corinth, demanded the prize very humourously, because he was drunk before any of the rest of the company ; for, says he, when we run a race, he who arrives at the goal first is entitled to the reward ; On the contrary, in this thirsty generation, the honour falls upon him who carries off the greatest quantity of liquor, and knocks down the rest of the company. But however highly this tribe of people may think of themselves, a drunken man is a greater monster than any that is to be fond among all the creatures which God hath made ; as indeed there is no character which appears more despicable and deformed, in the eyes of all reasonable persons, than that of a drunkard. Bonosus, one of our own countrymen, who was addicted to this vice, having set up for a share in the Roman empire, and being defeated in a great battle, hanged himself. When he was seen by the army, in this melancholy situation, not-withstanding he had behaved himself very bravely, the common jest was, that the thing they saw hanging before them upon the tree, was not a man, but a bottle. 