LESSONS TAUGHT US. 109 



A drunkard with a drought or twain, 



A sober man it makes again ; 



A full man empty, and an empty full, 



A gentleman a foolish gull ; 



It turns the brain like cat in pan, 



And makes a Jack a gentleman." 



The well-known song of " Tobacco is an Indian Weed," 

 was written most probably the last half of the Seventeenth 

 Century, Fairholt gives the best copy we have seen of it. 

 It is taken from the first volume of " Pills to Purge Melan- 

 choly," and reads thus : 



" Tobacco's but an Indian weed, 



Grows green at morn, cut down at eve, 

 It shows our decay, we are but clay ; 

 Think of this when you smoke tobacco. 



" The pipe, that is so lily white, 

 Wherein so rsany take delight, 

 Is broke with a touch man's life is such ; 

 Think of this when you smoke tobacco. 



" The pipe, that is so foul within, 

 Shews how man's soul is stained with sin, 

 And then the fire it doth require ; 

 Think of this when you smoke tobacco. 



" The ashes that are left behind 

 Do serve to put us all in mind 

 That unto dust return we must ; 

 Think of this when you smoke tobacco. 



" The smoke, that does so high ascend, 

 Shews us man's life must have an end, 

 The Vapor's gone man's life is done ; 

 Think of this when you smoke tobacco." 



One of the strongest objections against the use of the 

 " Indian novelty " was its ruinous cost at this period. During 

 the reign of James The First and Charles The Second, 

 Spanish tobacco sold at from ten to eighteen shillings per 

 pound while Virginia tobacco sold for a time for three 

 shillings. In no age and by no race excepting perhaps the 

 Indians was the habit so universal or carried to such a length 



