TEMPERANCE (Lat. ternperantia, modera tion, sobriety, self-control, from ternperare, to proportion, modify). Primarily. a moderate use and enjoyment of all good things. In modern days the word is often used to designate great moderation in the use of alcoholic beverages, or even total abstinence front them, Among uncivilized races, ancient and modern, intoxication has been associated with religious ideas and has been encouraged as an incident of religious festivity. As a common vice of appe tite it has always been condemned, and in almost all communities in one way or another punished. The earliest attempt at temperance reform is claimed by the Chinese. who affirm that in the eleventh century B.C. one of their emperors or dered all the vines in the kingdom to be uprooted. Early reforms are attributed also to the priests of India and of Persia. The Carthaginians for bade wine in their camps, and to magistrates hold ing public office. Among the Hebrews there were
various sects and orders which abstained from the use of intoxicants. The Buddhists taught total abstinence. The Christian Church made some attempt to bring about a more moderate use of the wine-cup. Saint Glides dealt out severe punishment to any churchman guilty of drunken ness. Dunstan is said to have labored in the cause of temperance in England to the end that King Edgar at his instance restricted the num ber of taverns and the quantity of intoxicants that might be sold. By a law of 1285 taverns in London were required to close at curfew. From 1603 legislation against ale-houses and drunkenness increased. In 1736 Parliament at tempted to restrict the use of gin by means of a prohibitory tax, which, however, only brought about an illicit trade.