ATTACKED BY JAMES I. 81 



pent-up dislike burst forth in 1603, so that the boldness 

 of the Doctor was all the more creditable to his con- 

 science. James had often declared his unmitigated 

 dislike to tobacco, and when he wrote against it made 

 no compromise. His Majesty treats the argument (if 

 it can be called one) in a right royal style, after the 

 fashion of a condemned sentence from the bench to 

 convicted criminals. 



This is a specimen of the arrogant tone of argument 

 adopted in this renowned treatise : — " Surely smoke 

 becomes a kitchen farre better than a dining chamber ; 

 and yet it makes a kitchen oftentimes in the inward 

 parts of men, soyling and infecting with an unctuous 

 and oyly kind of soote as hath been found in some 

 great tobacco takers, that after death were opened. 

 A custom loathsome to the eye, harmfull to the braine, 

 dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking 

 fame thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian 

 smoke of the pit that is bottomless." Elsewhere his 

 dislike to Ealeigh peeps forth covertly in the following 

 passage : — 



" Now the corrupted baseness of the first use of this 

 tobacco doeth very well agree with the foolish and 

 groundless first entry thereof into this kingdome. It 

 is not so long since the first entry of this abuse 

 amongst us here, as this present age can very well 

 remember both the first author and the form of the 

 first introduction of it amongst us. It was neither 

 brought in by King, great conqueror, nor learned 

 Doctor of Physic. With the report of a great dis- 



