The Causes of Intemperance (1849)

AUTHOR: Alcott, William Andrus

KEYWORDS: food and diet, morality, Temperance

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

Alcott argues against any use of alcohol, not just that of high spirits. He alerts his readers to the perils of even small amounts of alcohol, particularly if it is consumed habitually, and he goes so far as to caution against the use of alcohol during communion and other religious practices. He is also adamant that alcohol must not be used in medicines. Alcott also voices his conviction that drinking too much generally, even non-alcoholic drinks, is detrimental to health.

In the installment titled “The Causes of Intemperance: No. 19 – One Hundred and Fifty Years,” Alcott explicitly links Temperance to vegetarianism. Quoting extensively from Thomas Tryon's Letters, Alcott alerts his readers to a particular passage on the detrimental effects of meat-eating on physical health and, importantly, of meat-eating as a contributing factor in intemperance: “Mr. Tryon does not indeed say that the eaters of all sorts of gross, unclean flesh become intemperate as a direct necessary result, but only that they become 'surly, bold, robustic, gross, &c. [closing quotation mark missing]. In other words, the use ot [sic] flesh tends to make men coarse, and sensual, and brutish.” Alcott emphasizes this point, adding that “the use of animal food, by creating an unnatural thirst, no less than by making men coarse and sensual, as certainly tends to intemperance, as any other cause whatever.” He draws an analogy with cannibalism: “It is not wholly vain,” he writes, “to appeal to the passions or even to the understandings […] of men on this great subject, so long as the present absurd customs of diet and regimen – alias, cannibalism – prevails [sic] so extensively throughout many Christian nations.” Thus, once more, Alcott makes clear that both Temperance and vegetarianism are aspects of Christian morality. Accordingly, he ends the article on the following note: “Religion, as well as temperance, must hide her head, till men learn to live without war and violence of any kind whatever” (74).

Last updated on May 17th, 2024

SNSF project 100015_204481

@VLS@veganism.social | VeganLiteraryStudies | @veganliterarystudies |