SYMPOSIUM 23 



next meeting, the Wurtemberger brought out a cigar. I 

 can see it now — a long, thin, Hght-yellow thing ! and 

 smoked at least half of it, as a burnt offering for his 

 fatherland ! 



The important part tobacco has played in state affairs 

 would be amazing were it not so laughable ; the weed 

 seems to break down barriers with a puff, and to clear the 

 way to mutual understandings where jealousy and infra 

 dig. blocked up the path. It once reached my ears that 

 England's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Lord Clarendon, 

 made his office reek like a cabman's shelter with the fumes 

 of the strongest tobacco. He would never listen to a word 

 against his favourite indulgence without rising in assumed 

 wrath in its defence, and would stoutly maintain that 

 tobacco possessed a potent spell over men's minds, 

 disposing them towards the good side in all the important 

 affairs of life. And Lord Canning, too, could seldom be 

 seen without a cigar in his mouth. 



' But as to smoking in colleges and among youths 

 generally, I am firmly convinced that the practice is bad in 

 every way. No youth under the age of sixteen should be 

 permitted to take tobacco in any form, under pain of 

 physical chastisement or public prosecution.' 



Prince Bismarck having thus delivered himself, the 

 honour of France demanded that the Grand Nation 

 should not remain silent in the halls of the immortals. An 

 animated chatter among the spectral throng ensues, and 

 mutterings which mark dissension are audible above the 

 general hum. 



' Indulgence in tobacco and alcohol are leading directly 

 to the total annihilation of conscience .... the moral 

 sense is blunted, and degeneracy is spreading throughout 

 Christendom. Count Tolstoy is perfectly certain of it, 



