I spoke with spirits about drunkenness, and they confirmed that it is an enormous sin, both because a person becomes like a brute, no longer human-because being human consists in the faculty of understanding, so one becomes like a brute-and also because it brings harm on the body and thus hastens death, besides wasting by excess resources that could be useful for many purposes. 1748, 27 June. And it appeared to them so impure that they shrank away from such a life-which mortals, however, have persuaded themselves to be civil.