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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
opposed to the wanton destruction of life. Alcohol is a
deadly poison which annihilates living organism if used in
sufficient quantity. It is a liquid fire consuming life, the
antithesis to the Source and First Cause of all life—God.
It also impairs the higher psychic powers ; for instance,
telepathy, and the intensity of prayer as a medium of
elevating the soul to the realm of the Infinite. It materialises
and brutalises the higher aspirations of man. According to
the famous Russian writer, Count Leo Tolsto}’, "it is an
invention of the devil himself."
Thus it may be seen that wide horizons are opening up
for Russia as a direct result of the suppression of vodka.
Nowhere has the experiment of introducing abstinence
from drink been made on a greater scale, and had more
promising results. The temperance movement in Great
Britain is gaining more and more in power, and perhaps it
may receive a new impetus by the example of Russia. If
Great Britain would follow Russia in abolishing the use of
spirits in the same way as the use of opium, cocaine, and
other deadly poisons have been prohibited by law, the
beneficial results would probably even surpass those obtained
in Russia, because Great Britain is a more advanced country.
It would also be much easier to suppress the use of spirits
in Great Britain, as the English are more capable of acting
together with one accord than Russians have been able to do
up to the present. In such a strong-minded and practical
nation as the English it is difficult to understand their
weakness for the bottle. But a change for the better has
already come about within the last twenty years. There is
no more boasting as to who can drink the most. The
knowledge of the deleterious effects of alcohol is steadily
spreading, and the value of a healthy life from a moral point
of view, as also from a point of view of eugenics, is more
and more realised. Thus, let us hope that the day is not
distant when the Russian and English nations will shake
hands in a common sense of brotherhood in temperance.
There should be a brotherly " give and take" ; Great
Britain may take from Russia the example of the total
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