Lanterna Rally

Author: Henry Putnam Stearns

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-11-07

Total Pages: 20

ISBN-13: 9781397174840

Excerpt from The Drunkard and His Responsibility It will be my purpose in the following pages to discuss this subject, not generally or chiefly in its relations to society or the family, but rather in relation to the nature of the condition of drunkenness, and its influence upon the individual who may be affected by it. Indeed, if I mistake not, the point on which we are most interested is embraced in the last word of the heading, namely, the matter of responsibility. Is the drunkard responsible for continuing to remain one, or is be affected with such a form of disease as to free him from responsibility? Again, has he a less degree of responsibility on account of his condition than others would have, or should he be held to full account for his misdemeanors? This I conceive to be the point of largest interest at the present time concerning the whole subject, inasmuch as on its decision depends, in a measure at least, the course to be followed by society in its treatment of this class of its members. It also necessarily removes our discussion largely from the realm of morals and bears it over into that of disease; for if there is no disease, and the individual still retains the full use of his physical and mental powers, then he must be held responsible to the same extent as others. If, on the other hand, he is diseased, the question is, to what extent is he so, and how does such disease modify responsibility? It may be well, as preliminary to the discussion of these portions of the general subject, to prepare the way by making certain statements which will serve to prevent my being misunderstood, and also limit somewhat the range of the paper. 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.