TOBACCO LEAVES 



There are, of course, other old poems on 

 the subject, but among them all the one 

 above is not only the best literary effort, 

 but is also the best champion of the smok- 

 er's cause, which had then, as it has now 

 to some extent, its opponents. The poem, 

 which has a fine human and serious strain 

 in it, in reflecting as it does upon the sins 

 and vanities of this life, must also have 

 echoed the general opinion of smokers in 

 associating thinking and smoking to- 

 gether. As the same opinion has been 

 held since then, and as most of our great- 

 est writers have been smokers, who can 

 deny the inspiration of the leaf? From 

 the days of Queen Elizabeth, and for 

 nearly one hundred years later, tobacco 

 had its own struggles to establish itself 

 in popular and permanent favour. But 

 it conquered as it deserved to conquer. Its 

 enemies in the early days called tobacco, 

 in the words of Withers, " a thing of bar- 

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