Intemperance
Intemperance
22/Apr/08
One great piece of mischief that has been done by
the modern restriction of the word Temperance to
the question of drink. It helps people to forget
that you can be just as intemperate about lots of
other things. A man who makes his golf or his
motor-bicycle the centre of his life, or a woman
who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge
or her dog, is being just as "intemperate" as
someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course,
it does not show on the outside so easily:
bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall
down in the middle of the road. But God is not
deceived by externals.
—C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity