INFLUENCE OX THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 91 



saturated with the fumes of tobacco ! How vivid they are ! 

 It is then that his head seems to dilate by the organic 

 repercussion which spends its entire force upon the brain. 

 All these repercussions are so many sparks which produce 

 a kind of intellectual convulsion, which often gives rays of 

 imagination even to those brains which Nature has not 

 favoured." * 



So much from the Frenchman ; now hear the 

 Englishman : — t 



" ' Blessed be the man who invented sleep ! ' was the 

 pious ejaculation of our worthy and inimitable friend 

 Sanclio Panza, and we, not denying the advantages, plea- 

 sures, and delights of slumber, change the subject-matter, 

 and exclaim, ' Blessed be the man who discovered tobacco ! ' 

 Yes ! blessed be the man who first rescued this precious 

 weed from obscurity and brought it into general estimation ! 

 For what has been more useful to mankind ? what more 

 beneficial ? Its virtues are manifold ; their name is 

 Legion. Truly the Indians proved their wisdom by making 

 the pipe the symbol of peace, for what more soothing? 

 what more consolatory ? To all men it proves of service, 

 from royalty to the bone-picker. The philosopher over his 

 pipe and coffee (excellent berry — rare weed) reasons and 

 speculates with a freshness and vigour which encourages 

 him in his labours. And if invention consist, as Con- 

 dillac will have it, in combining in a new manner ideas 

 received through the senses, when are they received with 

 such force, clearness, and energy, as when under the in- 

 spiration of the Virginian weed? The historian, whose 

 province it is to study facts, events, manners, the spirit of 



* Joubert, * Tabac' f P. B. St. John. 



