"Narcotic evil"

"The true nature of the narcotic evil becomes visible when someone who has been using an opiate for some time attempts to give up its use. Suddenly his eyes are opened to his folly and he realizes the startling fact that he is in the coils of a serpent as merciless as the boa-constrictor and as relentless as fate. With a firm determination to free himself, he discontinues its use. Now his sufferings begin and steadily increase until they become unbearable. The tortures of Dives are his; but unlike that miser, he has only to stretch forth his hand to find oceans with which to satisfy his thirst. That human nature is not often equal to so extraordinary self-denial affords little cause for astonishment...Again and again he essays release from a bondage so humiliating, but meets with failure only, and at last submits to his fate as a confirmed opium-eater."