152 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



fatalism and despotism, make use of tobacco as our dandies 

 use the ball-room and theatres, as the poet sips coffee, as 

 the savant gives lectures, — all resolves itself into that 

 grand engine of animality — sensation.* 



*' Amongst smokers, some relish the immediate im- 

 pression, and enjoy it instinctively, hke the very air they 

 breathe. 



" Others meditate their sensations. They find in them 

 a source of contentment which lifts them up to the hope 

 or remembrance of bliss. f The periodic action of em- 

 bracing the cigar with their lips, and expiring its vapour 

 in puffs, rocks their minds to rest. 



" Thus tobacco rises to the rank of a moral modi/leaf or. 

 And then we must appreciate it — no longer in accordance 

 with its chemical constituents or the principles of physi- 

 ology, but in the light of moral reactions, which play so 

 important a part in human hygeine. Wretches who have 

 not eaten bread for a long time beg alms to buy tobacco. 

 A sailor deprived of his plug for three days puts into his 

 moiith a ball of tarred oakum, and thanks with tears in 

 his eyes the surgeon who shares wdth him a bit of his 

 tobacco. 



* Forget, * Medecine Naval e,' i. 293. 



t Les autres refle'ehissent leurs sensations, y puisent un 

 bien-etre qui les porte a I'esp^rance ou aux reminiscences de 

 bonheur. The reader will perhaps remember the account 

 •which I have given of my own sensations whilst smoking, 

 and will perceive that Dr. Levy has precisely described them ; 

 and I feel great delight in the coincidence. It shows how 

 we all are classed in relation to certain types of humanity ; 

 it is the irresistible impulse by which we are adapted for the 

 social compact. 



It may be proper to state, that the former part of my book 

 was wi'itten several days before I procured this most interest- 

 ing work of Dr. Ldvy. 



