68 AN OCTOGENARIAN SMOKES. 



weaken the power of thought, nor stultify the brain. It 

 quiets the nerves, makes a man look in charity upon the 

 world, and to judge with a chastened lenity the short- 

 comings of his neighbors. It reconciles him to his lot, and 

 sends him to his pillow, or about his labors, with a calm 

 deliberate cheerfulness, very desirable to those who come 

 under the law that requires people to earn their bread by 

 the sweat of their brow. 



" I said there is a good deal of philosophy in a pipe, and 

 I repeat it. Who can see the smoke go wreathing and curl- 

 ing upward from his lips in all sorts of fantastic shapes, 

 spreading out thinner and thinner, till it fades away and is 

 lost among the invisible things of the air, without saying to 

 himself, ' Such are the visions of youth ; such the hopes, 

 the grand schemes of life, looming up in beautiful distinct- 

 ness before the mind's eye, growing fainter and fainter as 

 life wears away, and then disappearing forever. Such are 

 the things of this life, beautiful as they appear, unsubstan- 

 tial shadows all.' And then, as the fire consumes the weed, 

 exhausting itself upon the substance which feeds it, burning 

 lower and lower, till it goes out for lack of aliment, who 

 will not be reminded of life itself ? the animated form, the 

 body instinct with vitality, changing and changing as time 

 sweeps along, till the spirit that gave it vigor and comeli- 

 ness, and power and beauty, is called away, and it becomes 

 at last mere dust and ashes. And then again, when the pipe 

 itself falls from the teeth, or the table, or the mantel, or the 

 shelf as fall it surely will, sooner or later and is broken, 



