Still yearningly aspires,
With ripening desires,
And, in its season, it will shoot
Up into the perfect fruit;
But had it not lain low,
It ne'er had learn'd to grow.

Aspire! for in thyself alone
That power belongs of right;
Within thyself that seed is sown,
Which strives to reach the light;
All pride of rank, all pomp of place,
All pinnacles that point in space,
But show thee, to the spheres,
No greater than thy peers;
But if thy spirit doth aspire,
Thou risest ever higher—higher—
Towards that consummate end,
When Heavenward we tend.

PHYSIOLOGY OF INTEMPERANCE.

"ONE glass more," exclaimed mine host of
the Garter. "A bumper at parting! No
true knight ever went away without 'the
stirrup cup.'"

"Good," cried a merry-faced guest; "but
the Age of Chivalry is gone, and that of
water-drinkers and teetotallers has succeeded.
Temperance societies have been imported
from America, and grog nearly thrown
overboard by the British Navy."

"Very properly so," observed a Clergyman
who sat at the table. "The accidents which
occur from drunkenness on board ship may
be so disastrous on the high seas, and the
punishment necessary to suppress this vice is
so revolting, that the most experienced naval
officers have recommended the allowance of
grog, served both to officers and men in our
Navy, to be reduced one-half. In America,
as well as in our own Merchant Service,
vessels sail out of harbour on the Temperance
principle; not a particle of spirits is allowed
on board; and the men, throughout the
voyage, are reported to continue healthy and
able-bodied. Tea is an excellent substitute;
many of our old seamen prefer it to grog."

"That may be," exclaimed the merry-
faced guest. "Horses have been brought to
eat oysters; and on the Coromandel coast,
Bishop Heber says, they get fat when fed on
fish. Sheep have been trained up, during a
voyage, to eat animal food, and refused, when
put ashore, to crop the dewy greensward.
When honest Jack renounces his grog, and,
after reefing topsails in a gale of wind, goes
below deck to swill down a domestic dish of
tea, after the fashion of Dr. Samuel Johnson,
at Mrs. Thrale's, I greatly fear the character
of our British seamen will degenerate. In
the glorious days of Lord Nelson, the
observation almost passed into a proverb, that the
man who loved his grog always made the
best sailor. Besides, in rough and stormy
weather, when men have perhaps been splicing
the mainbrace, and exposed to midnight cold
and damp, the stimulus of grog is surely
necessary to support, if not restore, the vital
energy?"

"Not in the least," rejoined the Clergyman.
"Severe labour, even at sea, is better sustained
without alcoholic liquors; and the depressing
effects of exposure to cold and wet weather
best counteracted by a hot mess of cocoa or
coffee served with biscuit or the usual allowance
of meat. In fact, I have lately read,
with considerable satisfaction, a prize essay
by an accomplished physician, in which he
proves that alcohol acts as a poison on the
nervous system, and that we can dispense
entirely with the use of stimulants.

"Not exactly so," observed a Physician,
who was of the party. "Life itself exists
only by stimulation; the air we breathe, the
food we eat, the desires and emotions which
excite the mind to activity, are all so many
forms of physical and mental stimuli. If the
atmosphere were deprived of its oxygen, the
blood would cease to acquire those stimulating
properties which excite the action of the
heart, and sustain the circulation; and if the
daily food of man were deprived of certain
necessary stimulating adjuncts, the digestive
organs would no longer recruit the strength,
and the wear and tear of the body. Nay,
strange as it may appear, that common
article in domestic cookery, salt, is a natural
and universal stimulant to the digestive
organs of all warm-blooded animals. This is
strikingly exemplified by the fact, that animals,
in their wild state, will traverse, instinctively,
immense tracts of country in pursuit of it;
for example, to the salt-pans of Africa and
America; and it is a curious circumstance,
that one of the ill effects produced by withholding
this stimulant from the human body is
the generation of worms. The ancient laws
of Holland condemned men, as a severe
punishment, to be fed on bread unmixed with
salt; and the effect was horrible; for these
wretched criminals are reported to have been
devoured by worms, engendered in their own
stomach. Now, I look upon alcohol to be,
under certain circumstances, as healthful and
proper a stimulant to the digestive organs as
salt, when taken in moderation, whether in
the form of malt liquor, wine, or spirits and
water. When taken to excess, it may act
upon the nervous system as a poison; but the
most harmless solids or fluids may, by being
taken to excess, be rendered poisonous.
Indeed, it has been truly observed, that
'Medicines differ from poisons, only in their
doses.' Alcoholic stimulants, artificially and
excessively imbibed, are, doubtless, deleterious."

"The subject," observed the Host, filling
his glass, and passing the bottle, "is a curious
one. The port before us, at all events, is not
poison; and I confess, that so ignorant am I
of these matters, that I would like to know
something about this alcohol which is so
much spoken of."

"The explanation is not difficult," answered