12 INTRODUCTORY. 



over millions of mankind; yet, yielding too freely to the 

 seductive influence of the narcotic weed, we may have to suffer 

 the penalty, while with the aromatic berry nature is rarely in 

 revolt. The one stimulates but to enervate ; the other refreshes 

 and sustains. Coffee also is a better disinfectant than tobacco. 



In the olden time, when the &quot; occult sciences,&quot; so called, were 

 in vogue with the learned as well as the superstitious, women 

 indulged implicit faith in omens, premonitions, and &quot; signs.&quot; 

 In Brande s &quot; Antiquities,&quot; allusion is made to a curious species 

 of divination by, or tossing of, coffee-grounds. The narrator 

 relates a visit he paid to a lady ; &quot; whom he surprised with 

 her company in close cabal over their coffee, the rest very in 

 tent upon one whom by her address and intelligence he guessed 

 was a tire-woman, to which she added the secret of divining by 

 coffee-grounds. She was then in full inspiration, and with 

 much solemnity observing the atoms around the cup ; on the 

 one hand sat a widow, on the other a maiden lady. . . . They 

 assured him that every cast of the cup is a picture of all one s 

 life to come, and every transaction and circumstance is delinea 

 ted w r ith the exactest certainty,&quot; etc. The same practice is also 

 noticed in the Connoisseur, where a girl is represented divining 

 to find out of what rank her husband should be : &quot; I have seen 

 him several times in coffee-grounds, with a sword by his side ; 

 and he was once at the bottom of a tea- cup, in a coach-and-six, 

 with two footmen behind it ! &quot; 



Leigh Hunt thus pleasantly discourses upon our subject: 

 &quot; Coffee, like tea, used to form a refreshment by itself, some 

 hours after dinner ; it is now taken as a digester, right upon 

 that meal or the wine, and sometimes does not even close it ; 

 or the digester itself is digested by a liqueur of some sort 

 called a chasse-cafe (coffee-chaser). &quot;We like coffee better than 

 tea for the taste, but tea for a constancy. To be perfect in 

 point of relish (we do not say of wholesomeness), coffee should 



