A Water Drinker (pseud.) [Montagu, Basil]
Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented Liquors. Printed for J. Johnson & Co., 1814. 8vo, contemporary leather-backed marbled boards; 4 eng. plates (?of 5), 2 eng. vignettes to text. First ed.
A strange and free-wheeling denunciation of liquors of all kind and in all ways, which draws on classics, myths and philosophers to score its points. What is striking (certainly at this date) is the use of confessionals. Whilst later Temperance pamphlets would make regular use of this device, it was unheard of at this point. The work draws on a Romantic inspiration, most especially in its anonymous (and definitely not autobiographical) "Confessions of a Drunkard" by William Lamb. This piece predates even de Quincey, making it perhaps the first confessional of its kind. A strange proto-Temperance work, twenty years too early.