BLESSING SNEEZERS. 2G7 



The box is used, the book laid by, as dead, 

 With snuff, not Scripture, there the soul is fed ; 

 For where to heaven the hands by one of those 

 Are lifted, twenty have them at the nose ; 

 And while some pray, to be from sudden death 

 Deliver'd, others snuff to stop their breath." 



In his preface the author says : " The principal 

 maladies produced by the misapplication of snuff take 

 their rise, from the violent convulsive motion that 

 nature makes use of in sneezing; " and he then con- 

 tinues, " I don't remember, nor do I believe, that 

 sneezing has hitherto been reckoned by any author, 

 ancient or modern, amongst the causes of consump- 

 tion." He then adroitly turns aside to his own pur- 

 pose the old custom of invoking a blessing on sneezers, 

 a custom which dates from the most remote times, by 

 asking : " I should be glad to be informed how the 

 common salutation, ' God bless you ! ' when anybody 

 sneezes, became so much in vogue ; if it were not 

 from the dreadful convulsions, and sometimes sudden 

 deaths, that have been the fatal consequences of those 

 impetuous shocks." The following story, apropos of 

 this, is in Menagiana : — 



" TJn petit-maitre, apres mauvais chance, 

 Sortoit du jeu la tabatiere en main. 

 Un gueux passoit, qui vient ii lui soudain 

 Lui demandant l'aumone avec instance. 

 Des deux cotez grande etoit Findigence. 

 II ne me reste, ami, dit le joueur, 

 Que le tabac. En veux tu ? Serviteur, 

 Kepond le gueux, qui n' etoit pas trop nice, 

 Nul besoiu n'ai d'eternuer, seigneur, 

 Chacun me dit assez, 'Dieu vous benisse.' : ' 



