Colossus; and the hydra of intemperance trembled for its hundred heads. The reformation soon assumed a "questionable shape," in the opinions of those who were addicted to the use of, or engaged in the traffic in ardent spirit. Its unparalleled rapidity of movement, through the cities and hamlets of the land, and the highly important principles which it proposed to introduce, challenged the attention of mankind, and placed that portion of it, who were disposed to continue the use and traffic, between the horns of an inconvenient dilemma; constraining them to show a sufficient plea of justification for such a course, or to pursue it in silence, and in perfect disregard of the declared opinions of a daily augmenting number of the wise and good. Utterly unprovided with any thing in the shape of a sound and sensible defense, the venders and consumers of ardent spirit resorted to that course, which is so very commonly employed by those who feel better able to criminate the motives of their accusers, than to justify their own. The advocates of temperance were accused of fanaticism and hypocrisy. The reformation was styled, by some, a sectarian thing, and by others, a political thing. By many, it was called an orthodox thing. The reformers were charged, at one moment, with a design to unite the church and the state; and, at another, with an intention to take away the liberties of the people. To these absurd allegations, the friends of temperance replied, in the best natured manner imaginable, answering a fool according to his folly. We cannot deny, said they, that the temperance reform is a sectarian thing; for there is no sect upon earth, which does not cheerfully co-operate for its advancement. It is also a political thing; for no man can be deemed a suitable candidate for public office, who is addicted to the use of ardent spirit. Such is our opinion, said they; and such was the opinion of Thomas Jefferson. "The habit of using ardent spirit," said he, "by men in public office, has produced more mischief for the country, and more trouble for me, than any thing which has oc curred in the internal concerns of the country, during my administration; and were I to commence my administration again, the first question I would ask, in relation to every candidate for public office, should be, Is HE ADDICTED TO THE USE OF ARDENT SPIRIT?" Assuredly, they continued, the temperance reform is an orthodox thing; for christians, of all denominations, are perfectly orthodox in their opinions of the disastrous effects of intoxicating liquors, and in their endeavors to abolish them, as a drink, from the face of the earth. It is our design to unite the church and the state, in this magnificent enterprise. From that state, whose legislators continue to extend the palladium of the law over the unchristian traffic in broken constitutions and broken hearts, the church of Christ must ever be divided; for you may proclaim the religion of peace from the house-top, yet there will be no peace, till temperance prevails. By our exertions, therefore, in this holy cause, we hope to prevail with the legislators of our country, to withhold their patronage from a traffic which is MORALLY WRONG; and thus to unite the church and the state. Neither do we deny our intention to take away the liberties of the people: but what are the liberties of the people? The liberty of getting drunk; the liberty of beating your wives, and of beggaring your children; the liberty of wallowing in the mire; the liberty of occupying, by turns, county jails and houses of correction, state prisons and lunatic asylums; and the liberty of lying down, at last, in the drunkard's grave, or hanging on wires in the anatomist's hall: these are the precious liberties of the people which we are desirous of taking away. In utter disregard of this frivolous outcry, and in direct opposition to the carnal appetites and pecuniary interests of a large proportion of mankind, the genius of this blessed reformation has gone forward, firmly, steadily, and gracefully, upon its glorious way; sending down its showers of refreshing, and its purifying light, upon the castles of the rich, and the cottages of the poor; casting its bright beams of sunlight and joy upon the widow's home; leading the miserable prodigal, almost from the gates of hell and chambers of death, back to the trembling arms of an aged father; by a power of moral resurrection, returning the apostate husband, dead in his trespasses and sins, now washed of his pollution, to a long-forsaken wife; and leading the orphan girl to gather, among the first-fruits of the reformation, the penitential tears of a long-lost father. We have before us, a monument of the progress which bas been already made, in this truly christian work,-the Seventh Report of the American Temperance Society, containing 116 pages of fact and reasoning, as interesting and conclusive, as we have ever met with, on the subject of the temperance reform. The Reports of the American Temperance Society, in former years, and especially the fourth, fifth and sixth reports, have met with the highest favor, not only in our own, but in foreign lands. The mass of curious and highly important matter, which they bring under our consideration, carefully collected and judiciously arranged, furnish an inexhaustible stock of materials, for those who are desirous of exhibiting the subject in any of its awful relations. At the same time, an attentive perusal of the former reports, and a careful consideration of the arguments therein, sustained, as they are, by wellauthenticated narratives and independent facts, cannot fail to impress the mind of every impartial man, with a solemn conviction of the enormity of the evils of intemperance; of the necessity of an immediate reformation throughout the world; and of the inef ficacy of every other project, than the simple and consistent plan of total abstinence. The Seventh Report, now under consideration, will not be likely to suffer by a close comparison with any of its predecessors, nor indeed with any similar performance, emanating from any domestic or foreign press. The Report commences with a reference to the auspicious indications of the present time. It then proceeds to state the object in forming the American Temperance Society; gives an account of the state of the temperance reform, in 1833; of the several state temperance conventions; and of the condition of temperance in England, Sweden, Russia, India, Africa, NewHolland, etc. It next proceeds to recapitulate the substance of the preceding reports of the American Temperance Society, in a summary manner; refers to the opinions of distinguished statesmen and civilians; shows, in the clearest light, that such a traffic, as that in which the world is now engaged, is forbidden by the holy scriptures; exhibits the resolutions of the society, and of ecclesiastical bodies connected therewith; and concludes with several forcible addresses or appeals to moderate drinkers, venders of spirit, ministers of the gospel, and members of churches. A closely printed appendix, of fifteen pages, terminates the Report. Here is a report, replete with important facts and irresistible reasonings. No rational being, we should suppose, could fail to be convinced by its arguments; no unseared conscience could resist its forcible appeals; no human creature, conscious of his accountability to God, could hesitate to abandon that use and traffic, which are so clearly demonstrated to be morally wrong. But the difficulty appears to lie in the compass of a nut-shell, after all: these luminous reasonings and solemn appeals are eminently calculated to satisfy the righteous, who are already convinced; those incorrigible rogues, the dram-drinker and dram-seller, can seldom be prevailed upon to read them. Yet we look upon these invaluable reports, as the great store-houses or depositories, from which portions may be abstracted, and presented before the world, in an endless variety of forms. They are mines of moral and intellectual wealth, in connection with the temperance reformation. If it be true, however, that the heart must be softened, before any effectual impression can be made, where only it can be expected to produce a permanent effect; we should be inclined, in the most respectful manner, to suggest to those upon whom the preparation of these invaluable reports may hereafter devolve, the propriety of employing this very principle, and giving it a more extensive practical application. We cannot be misunderstood, as recommending any deviation from a perfectly cool and clear-headed method of stating and arranging such facts and statistics, as it may be thought necessary to present. Nothing can be more imperti nent, than the introduction of pathetic apostrophes, in the very midst of such matters as these. But in the admirable report before us, there are abundant opportunites for the legitimate employment of that principle to which we have referred. The addresses to moderate drinkers, venders, ministers of the gospel, and members of churches, are excellent of their kind. They are appeals, and forcible appeals, to the reasons and to the consciences of these several classes of men. That principle is utterly inconceivable by us, upon which a deacon or church-member, who sells rum till late on Saturday night, can lay his hands, purified, if you please, by all the ablutions of the Levitical law, upon the holy elements, on a sabbath morning, and then go to it again on the morrow, filling the rum-drinker's jug, taking away the bread of the miserable tippler's children, and reducing his shilling to sixpence, and that sixpence to nothing and a jail. Is it the part of wisdom to attempt the recovery of such men from their moral catalepsy, by appeals to the reason and the conscience, without corresponding and simultaneous efforts to move the heart? Are our surest weapons in this warfare against man, to save him from himself, to be drawn from an intellectual and a spiritual armory? Such weapons are indispensable, beyond a doubt; but, surely it cannot be a more judicious course, to rely upon their instrumentality alone, than for the husbandman to scatter his seed upon the earth, without any effort of the plough to soften and prepare the stubborn soil. The temperance reform furnishes, indeed, a broad ground of perfect neutrality, upon which aliens and strangers, those who have not known Joseph nor his kindred, may assemble, together with our own countrymen, and, by laboring shoulder to shoulder in the cause of God and of man, learn a little of the high and holy mystery of loving one another. We can never expect to prevail, until we shall be able to persuade our reluctant neighbor to become a coldwater man; not for his own sake, nor for the sake of his immediate family alone, but for the sake of his fellow-man ;-until we can thoroughly imbue him with a portion of that blessed spirit, which prompted our Lord and Master to do so much for a sinful world. Until this much be effected, we may reason and preach in vain. "If love to God and love to men It is inexpressibly easier, in such a cause as this, to enter the back door of the heart, than the front door of the understanding; and this course may be adopted, without the slightest abatement of our power to address the reason and the conscience. Nothing is more common than the declarations of mankind, that they are willing to be convinced; but, in our pilgrimage of eight and forty years, we have never met with a single individual who was willing to be convinced, that it was proper to destroy the long-cherished idols of his soul. Yet we have found not a few, who were perfectly accessible through the kindlier affections of the heart; and who were thus rendered capable of turning a willing ear to the voice of reason and religion; and, at last, of sacrificing their false gods upon the altar of brotherly love. It is truly gratifying to mark the rapid advances of the reformation, as exhibited in the following extracts from the Report: • At our last Annual Meeting, there had been formed in the United States, 21 State Temperance Societies; and in smaller districts, it was supposed, more than five thousand other Temperance Societies, embodying on the plan of abstinence from the drinking of ardent spirit, and from the traffic in it, more than 1,000,000 members. More than 2000 men had ceased to make it; and more than 6000 had ceased to sell it. They believed that the business was wicked, and they applied this belief to their practice. More than 5000 men who once were drunkards, had within five years ceased to use intoxicating drink; and were, as all men who pursue this course will be, sober men. Many of them had become highly respectable and useful, and not a few truly pious men. More than 700 vessels were afloat on the ocean, in which ardent spirit was not used; and multitudes of all ages, in all kinds of lawful business, and in every variety of condition, had found by experience, that they were in all respects better without the use of it. Facts had proved, that it is a nuisance, unspeakably injurious to mankind. Numerous Medical Associations had condemned the drinking of it, as a violation of the laws of life; and various Ecclesiastical bodies of different denominations, embracing more than 5000 ministers of the gospel, and more than 6000 christian churches, had expressed it as their solemn and deliberate conviction, that the traffic in ardent spirit to be used as a drink, is morally wrong; and that it ought to be abandoned throughout the world. In this state of things we commenced the labors of the past year.' p. 4. More than 7000 Temperance Societies have already been formed in the United States, embracing, it is supposed, more than 1,250,000 members. These persons, who are of all ages, from 12 to 90 years, of all varieties of condition, profession, and employment, know by experience, that ardent spirit is needless; and multitudes of them know that it is hurtful, and that men are in all respects better without it. Of course it is wicked to drink it, or to furnish it to be drunk by others. And the conviction of this truth is rapidly extending among all classes of people. More than 3000 distilleries have been stopped; and more than 7000 merchants have ceased to sell the poison. Yet there are some, who wish the use of it to be continued, and who strive to believe according to their wishes, who assert that such statements as the above are not true; and that there is as much spirit drunk now as ever. Mr. C, a large brandy merchant in New-York, lately met an active friend of temperance, and said to him, "Why are you publishing such |