Excerpt from A Poetical Address on Temperance In the following pages, the author has endeavored to give a fair historical sketch of the rise and progress of the Temperance enterprise and to embody and condense, as in a nutshell, the more prominent and effective arguments in favor of that blessed handmaid of pure and undefiled religion. As a literary pro duction, he is not insensible of its imperfections but he trusts it will readily be conceded that many of its delineations are true to the life. The Poem, it will be perceived, is conducted through out under the figure of personification - the Hygean nymph, or goddess of Temperance being made the heroine of the play and the six reformed Baltimoreans and Father Mathew, the principal actors on the stage. The form and measure of the verse are occasionally changed for the sake of enlivening the scenery, and of avoiding too much monotony. The Poem, the Ballad, and the Song, were all indited by the spirit of moral sua sion - alias brotherly love and kindness but if any there are, who like the spirit of legal suasion better, the author would not prohibit, .if he could, the enjoyment of their predilections. In a performance like the present. An attempt to adapt it to every os pacity were vain; and to please the fastidious taste of every carping critic were equally so. However unfavorably it may be scanned, he thinks it possesses one redeeming quality - the pu rity of its aim to do good and with a fervent desire that this little adventurer may serve, in some degree, to reclaim the wan dering; to establish the wavering to cheer the desponding and to accelerate the grand march of moral reform, it is humbly inscribed to Freedom's friends and mine. D. A. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.