'Nature sent him into the world strong and lusty, in a thriving condition, wearing his own hair on his head the proper branches of this reasoning vegetable,...

'Nature sent him into the world strong and lusty, in a thriving condition, wearing his own hair on his head the proper branches of this reasoning vegetable, until the axe of intemperance has lopped off his green boughs, and left him a withered trunk...'

In this passage, axe of intemperance means