TOBACCO LEAVES 



tims, polluting their bodies, enervating 

 their wills, and depraving their souls till 

 they should be fit for all the nameless law- 

 lessness from which I held myself so scorn- 

 fully aloof. 



For it is unhappily true that even as 

 her lovers love her, so do those hate her 

 who have not tasted of her delights. And, 

 as if in retribution for their folly, there 

 comes upon these poor creatures a sort of 

 madness, so that they rage and imagine 

 vain things. Whereby it happens that 

 they tell, and tell, one to another, grotesque 

 fictions which they come to believe. And 

 they utter these grievous fictions even to 

 credulous youth, believing them only be- 

 cause they will believe anything against 

 my Lady Nicotine. Whereas, God knows 

 no worse need be said than I say, who 

 speak the truth barely, and who do truly 

 love her. 



But I was not then as one who knoweth 



150 



