4 Feb 1773:11, 12, 13 (1123)
Virginia Gazette-Williamsburg (Hu)   
VGW(HU.773.013                                                          
4 Feb 1773:11, 12, 13 (1123)                                            
The Folly of Intemperance. A Genuine History.  No person can            
enjoy the blessing of a good constitution without being                 
sensible of the inestimable jewel he possesses, yet many                
prostitute their health so shamefully, by seeking for                   
pleasure in the paths of excess, that it would induce one to            
think they had taken a lease of life; and might safely put              
disease at defiance.                                                    
. . . [3 cols. criticising intemperance with an example of a            
dissolute friend]                                                       
He would then very obligingly entertain Madam Reason with a             
song, beginning,                                                        
  "With women and wine I'll defy every care,                            
  "For life without these is a bubble of air."                          
. . . he would very bluntly answer them in the words of                 
Churchill,                                                              
  "Wound up at twelve at noon, your clock goes right;                   
  "Mine better goes, wound up at twelve at night."                      
. . . He was fond of singing, but the weakness of his lungs             
prevented him from gratifying this vanity in displaying his             
harmonious talents.                                                     
. . . He had a passion for music, but through his                       
intemperance and habitual deafness had attacked him, so that            
the finest composition of Handel no longer soothed his                  
anxious breast.                                                         
. . . Our worn out rake had another misfortune.  He happened            
to fall desperately in love with an amiable young lady, . .             
. and by the assistance of friends a match was concluded on.            
Just before the ceremony, a Ball was given on the nuptials              
of a friend.  Mr. Frankley could not refuse to accompany his            
mistress, and to give her his hand in the dance; but                    
unluckily for him, he was on the very morning of that day               
attacked by a fit of the gout.  His pride would not permit              
him to confess his recent affliction, and he hobbled a                  
Minnuet so ungracefully that he became the ridicule of the              
whole company.  This laugh at his expense touched the                   
sensibility of his mistress so much, that, not having any               
real affection for him, she broke off the match, declaring              
she would never be wedded to such an aukward thing.                     
. . . agreeable to the words of Pomfret,                                
  "---The blundering Sloane,                                            
  "Missing the gout, hath often hit the stone;                          
  "The patient does the happy error find,                               
  "He works the cure, but not the cure design'd."