120 CURIOUS VERSES. 



" Ah! luckless was the day he learned to chew! 



Embryo of ills the quid that pleased him first ; 

 Thirsty from that unhappy quid he grew, 



Then to the ale-house went to quench his thirst. 



" So great events from causes small arise 

 The forest oak was once an acorn seed ; 

 And many a wretch from drunkenness who dies, 

 Owes all his evils to the Indian weed. 



' " Let no temptation, mortal, ere come nigh! 

 Suspect some ambush in the parsley hid ; 

 From the first kiss of love ye maidens fly, 

 Ye youths, avoid the first Tobacco-quid ! 



" Perhaps I wrong thee, O thou veteran chaw, 



And better thoughts my musings should engage ; 

 That thou wert rounded in some toothless jaw, 

 The joy, perhaps of solitary age. 



" One who has suffered Fortune's hardest knocks, 

 Poor, and with none to tend on his gray hairs ; 

 Yet has a friend in his Tobacco-box, 



And, while he rolls his quid, forgets his cares. 



" Even so it is with human happiness 



Each seeks his own according to his whim ; 

 One toils for wealth, one Fame alone can bless, 

 One asks a quid a quid is all to him. 



" O, veteran chaw ! thy fibres savory, strong, 



While aught remained to chew, thy master chewed, 

 Then cast thee here, when all thy juice was gone, 

 Emblem of selfish man's ingratitude ! 



'* 0, happy man ! O, cast-off quid ! is he 



Who, like as thou, has comforted the poor ; 

 Happy his age who knows himself, like thee, 

 Thou didst thy duty man can do no more." 



Another well known song of the Seventeenth Century is 

 entitled " The Tryumph of Tobacco over Sack and Ale :" 



" Nay, soft by your leaves, 



Tobacco bereaves 

 You both of the garland ; forbear it ; 



You are two to one, 



Yet tobacco alone 

 Is like both to win it, and weare it. 



