CHAPTER XIX.
WE are again behind the cases, on our way to another alcove.
Admiringly I glance at the beautiful groups of parents and their student children.
We stop before cases labelled "Drink."
Seeing Frederick look amazed, his mother says:
"The word drink had a different signification then to that it has with us. It was generally understood as a term for various mixtures of the poison, alcohol and water, swallowed by people to reduce their mental power until they became—some like young children in understanding, some idiotic, some resembled wild beasts of the most ferocious nature, and others committed acts worse than any beast was ever known to descend to; according to the temperament of the imbiber, were produced those direful effects. So universal was the wish for that deadly poison that the sellers of it accumulated large fortunes."
He indignantly interrupts her with:
"What a degradation to possess wealth obtained by such ignoble means!"
"So it was thought, even in their age, by advanced moralists, But often the dealer in alcoholic drinks passed as a parson devoted to the Infinite. (Seeing Frekerick's eyes flash.) Try always to remember the half-barbarous times are reviewing. All young students make the mistake of judging the past by our advanced natures."
