The Firefly of France
THE FIREFLY OF FRANCE CHAPTER I ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS The restaurant of the Hotel St. Ives seems, as I look back on it, an odd spot to have served as stage wings for a melodrama, pure and simple. Yet a melodrama did begin there. No other word fits the case. The inns of the Middle Ages, which, I believe, reeked with trap-doors and cutthroats, pistols and poisoned daggers, offered nothing weirder than my experience, with its first scene set beneath this roof. The food there is superperfect, every luxury surrounds you, millionaires and traveling princes are your fellow-guests. Still, sooner than pass another night there, I would sleep airily in Central Park, and if I had a friend seeking New York quarters, I would guide him toward some other place. It was pure chance that sent me to the St. Ives for the night before my
The physical disasters that follow the continued use of intoxicating
beverages are sad enough, and terrible enough; but the surely attendant
mental, moral and spiritual disasters are sadder and more terrible
still. If you disturb the healthy condition of the brain, which is the
physical organ through which the mind acts, you disturb the mind. It
will not have the same clearness of perception as before; nor have the
same rational control over the impulses and passions.
In what manner alcohol deteriorates the body and brain has been shown in
the two preceding chapters. In this one we purpose showing how the curse
goes deeper than the body and brain, and involves the whole man--morally
and spiritually, as well as physically.
HEAVENLY ORDER IN THE BODY.
In order to understand a subject clearly, certain general laws, or
principles, must be seen and admitted. And here we assume, as a general
truth, that health in the human body is normal heavenly order on the
physical plane of life, and that any disturbance of that order exposes
the man to destructive influences, which are evil and infernal in their
character. Above the natural and physical plane, and resting upon it,
while man lives in this world, is the mental and spiritual plane, or
degree of life. This degree is in heavenly order when the reason is
clear, and the appetites and passions under its wise control. But, if,
through any cause, this fine equipoise is disturbed, or lost, then a way
THE FIREFLY OF FRANCE CHAPTER I ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS The restaurant of the Hotel St. Ives seems, as I look back on it, an odd spot to have served as stage wings for a melodrama, pure and simple. Yet a melodrama did begin there. No other word fits the case. The inns of the Middle Ages, which, I believe, reeked with trap-doors and cutthroats, pistols and poisoned daggers, offered nothing weirder than my experience, with its first scene set beneath this roof. The food there is superperfect, every luxury surrounds you, millionaires and traveling princes are your fellow-guests. Still, sooner than pass another night there, I would sleep airily in Central Park, and if I had a friend seeking New York quarters, I would guide him toward some other place. It was pure chance that sent me to the St. Ives for the night before my