Sighted at Port Arthur, Tasmania, this quote from Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, by Isabella Beeton (emphasis added):
-It is true, says Liebig, that thousands have lived without a knowledge of tea and coffee; and daily experience teaches us that, under certain circumstances, they may be dispensed with without disadvantage to the merely animal functions; but it is an error, certainly, to conclude from this that they may be altogether dispensed with in reference to their effects; and it is a question whether, if we had no tea and no coffee, the popular instinct would not seek for and discover the means of replacing them. Science, which accuses us of so much in these respects, will have, in the first place, to ascertain whether it depends on sensual and sinful inclinations merely, that every people of the globe have appropriated some such means of acting on the nervous life, from the shore of the Pacific, where the Indian retires from life for days in order to enjoy the bliss of intoxication with koko, to the Arctic regions, where Kamtschatdales and Koriakes prepare an intoxicating beverage from a poisonous mushroom. We think it, on the contrary, highly probable, not to say certain, that the instinct of man, feeling certain blanks, certain wants of the intensified life of our times, which cannot be satisfied or filled up by mere quantity, has discovered, in these products of vegetable life the true means of giving to his food the desired and necessary quality.
{ 24 comments }
Randy McDonald 03.07.12 at 6:55 am
“Like.” (Also, “+1”.)
ajay 03.07.12 at 7:26 am
She has a point. Are there any cultures, anywhere, ever, that haven’t had some sort of mind altering substance that they used? Even the most devout Muslims are still allowed to smoke and drink coffee.
Phil 03.07.12 at 9:12 am
Since 1833 LDSers have forsworn all hot drinks, as well as alcohol and tobacco.
ajay 03.07.12 at 9:57 am
3: all hot drinks? What, even warm milk is too stimulating?
(quick google)
Yes, looks like it.
That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him.
And, behold, this should be wine, yea, pure wine of the grape of the vine, of your own make.
And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies.
And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill.
And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly.
So, no gin to be drunk (but it can be used as a zesty aftershave or body splash!); no tobacco; and no hot drinks of any kind (though this has been interpreted as allowing warm milk and apple juice). Apparently Coke is deprecated but not actually banned.
Nick Barnes 03.07.12 at 11:04 am
Quakers traditionally avoid alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, and very often caffeine too. Hence “Quaker tea”, i.e. hot water with or without a splash of milk. It’s actually very refreshing. I’m generally quite dependent on tea (when my pint mug is empty, it needs filling), but when I’m not having tea for any reason (for instance, when travelling on business in the US[1]), I find I get about 50% of the pick-me-up effect from a cup of hot water.
[1] Yes, I know there are many tea fans in the US. That doesn’t help me in the Homewood Suites in Hilliard, Ohio, at 6 a.m.
dsquared 03.07.12 at 11:05 am
So, no gin to be drunk (but it can be used as a zesty aftershave or body splash!);
Or potentially Finnish-style in a sauna? I am sensing a business opportunity here.
ajay 03.07.12 at 11:59 am
6: something along these lines perhaps?
The Scythians make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined towards one another, and stretching around them woollen felts, which they arrange so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground, into which they put a number of red-hot stones. They take some of this hemp-seed, and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy.
bert 03.07.12 at 12:14 pm
Isn’t that characteristic of sects, particularly ones like the Mormons or the Quakers that exist within a preexisting dominant culture? They’re not living without alcohol or caffeine (or cursing or masturbation). Quite the opposite: they’re defining themselves against it.
If caffeine didn’t exist, they’d invent its equivalent.
The Taliban hated music and the sheriff in Footloose hated dancing. I’m sure they’d find something. Few folks are more resourceful than your ostentatious prude.
Nick Barnes 03.07.12 at 1:40 pm
Well, I’m sure that’s a comfortably supercilious illusion you’ve got there bert, but the decaffeinated and/or teetotal Quakers (and others) of my acquaintance are not prudish or hateful toward caffeine or alcohol, or toward their consumers, neither do they ‘define themselves against it’.
This observation may not apply to Mormons, or to historical Quakers. It’s interesting to recall that many puritan sects – including some Quakers – were quite positive about coffee, and tea, for numerous reasons including the displacement of inns by coffeehouses.
Niall McAuley 03.07.12 at 2:07 pm
the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy.
Now a major motion picture: Huff-henge of the Scyth!
bert 03.07.12 at 2:20 pm
My granny was a quaker, Nick. As a kid I was taken along to Friends’ Houses for their Sunday get-togethers, and I’d say that in its current manifestation there’s much to like about Quakerism when compared with other religions. I’d reserve my metropolitan sneer for the Quivering Brethren of Cold Comfort Farm. Nowadays that mindset gets catered to more enthusiastically by other factions.
Mormons I know less well, and distrust more. The effort put in to projecting a public image of wholesomeness strikes me as creepy and coercive. But I’m happy to live and let live, as long as the religious return the compliment.
ajay 03.07.12 at 2:25 pm
10: “Only the Scyth deal in absolutely prime quality gear.”
Tim Worstall 03.07.12 at 3:07 pm
“Are there any cultures, anywhere, ever, that haven’t had some sort of mind altering substance that they used?”
It doesn’t have to be a substance though, it can be an action. Dervishes whirl after all, Puritans gain exultation from stopping people enjoying themselves.
patrick 03.07.12 at 3:20 pm
Tim Worstall- Your last sentence would seem to imply you accept Mencken’s definition of Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. Even Yoga can be said to be a mind-altering experience and activity then, of course, there’s the “runner’s high”.
Sev 03.07.12 at 3:34 pm
#3 “Since 1833 LDSers have forsworn all hot drinks, as well as alcohol and tobacco.”
Yet Romney certainly seems to be jumped up on something.
#5 “] Yes, I know there are many tea fans in the US. That doesn’t help me in the Homewood Suites in Hilliard, Ohio, at 6 a.m.”
Perhaps your namesake could be of assistance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_Barnes
rea 03.07.12 at 3:56 pm
I have often wondered how the Romans managed to get themselves up in the morning to make an empire, without caffeine. Hot vinegar just wouldn’t cut it, you’d think.
Gene O'Grady 03.07.12 at 4:00 pm
The 1833 date for the LDS abjuration of this that and the other is open to question, since somewhere about 1857 Brigham Young sent out a mission to establish a wine industry in Tocquerville. (Named after a local tribal chief, not Alexis de.)
And I have heard that Joe Smith was enjoying a glass of wine when the mob came for him.
ajay 03.07.12 at 4:02 pm
I have often wondered how the Romans managed to get themselves up in the morning to make an empire, without caffeine. Hot vinegar just wouldn’t cut it, you’d think.
Cold baths?
Medrawt 03.07.12 at 4:54 pm
It has been my observation, even when struggling with insomnia, that it’s much easier to get through the day without coffee if you never acquired the habit in the first place. Though I don’t consider myself Puritanical on the subject, I did feel vindication when stumbling across some study recently which suggested that the cognitive effect of caffeine was not true alertness, but rather the anxious restlessness of being unable to fall asleep, a condition with which I’m already well-enough acquainted.
Kenny Easwaran 03.07.12 at 5:35 pm
When you said “the Voltaire of caffeine” I thought this was going to be a reference to the claim that Voltaire regularly consumed 40 cups of coffee a day. (I don’t know how factual this assertion is, but on a quick google of “Voltaire coffee”, every page makes this claim, with slightly different numbers.)
ragweed 03.07.12 at 6:05 pm
[1] Yes, I know there are many tea fans in the US. That doesn’t help me in the Homewood Suites in Hilliard, Ohio, at 6 a.m.
If Lipton is good enough for Jesus. . .
js. 03.07.12 at 7:56 pm
Not quite on topic, but still brilliant.
Katherine 03.08.12 at 1:16 pm
Pretty much everything you look at, consume or do will in some level of alteration of mind, surely. To totally eschew all mind-altering substances you’d have to be very boring/bored. Also, dead.
Sasha Clarkson (Mr) 03.13.12 at 8:44 pm
I am a lapsed Quaker because I am no longer a Christian, but in my experience they’re a pretty wholesome and non dogmatic bunch. “Thou Shalt not” isn’t really part of their ethos. “Look for the Light within” is.
Certainly, at the Middlesbrough meeting which I attended for many years, there was always tea or coffee after Sunday meeting. Although most Friends tended to be teetotal or very modest drinkers, there is a history of Quaker involvement in the brewing industry, partly because beer was considered to be much better than the scourge of cheap spirits. Alas, many of the Quaker founders of businesses, especially the banks, would be horrified at what they have turned into!
http://www.leveson.org.uk/stmarys/resources/cadbury0503.htm
http://www.thrale.com/henry_thrale_mp_owner_1758_1781#Sale_of_the_brewery
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