Section 232 An Oration on the Power of Habit. — IV
“Young men, ahoy, there!”—“What is it?”—“The rapids are below you!”—“Ha, ha! we will laugh and quaff; all things delight us. What care we for the future? No man ever saw it. ‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof1.’ We will enjoy life while we may2; we will catch pleasure as it flies. This is enjoyment; time enough3 to steer out of danger when we are driving swiftly with the current.”—“Young men, ahoy!”—“What is it?”—“Beware! Beware! The rapids are below you!”—Now you see water foaming4 all around you.—See how fast you pass that point!—Up with the helm!—Now turn5!—Pull hard6—quick!—quick!—pull for your lives!—pull till7 the blood starts from the nostrils, and the veins stand like whipcord upon the brow! Set the mast in the socket! hoist the sail! Ah, ah!—it is too late! Shrieking, cursing, howling, blaspheming, over you go8!—Thousands go over the rapids of Intemperance9 every year, through the power of evil habit, crying out all the while10: “When I find out that it is injuring me, I will give it up!” The power of evil habit, I repeat, is fascinating11, is deceptive; and man may go on arguing and coming to conclusions while on the way down to destruction12.—J. B. Gough.
Notes
1 Es ist genug, daß ein jeglicher Tag seine eigene Plage habe!
2 so lange wir es noch können.
3 es bleibt uns noch Zeit genug.
4 schäumendes Wasser.
5 ‘to turn’, here um´kehren.
6 Pull, Rudert; ‘hard’, here aus Leibeskräften.
7 Supply the pron. euch here; starts = streams; from the nostrils, aus der Nase.
8 stürzt ihr in den Abgrund hinunter!
9 Trunksucht, f., seems to be the right expression here, although the dictionaries translate the word by Unmäßigkeit, f., and Völlerei, f.
10 und rufen immer.
11 here bestrickend; is = and.
12 and — destruction = and often we are still occupied with arguing a matter (eine Sache gründlich zu erörtern) in order to come (gelangen) to a definite conclusion, when we are (sich befinden) already on the way to destruction (Verderben, n.).