MORAL INFLUENCE. 161 



men condemn the use of tobacco, chiefly, I believe, on 

 moral grounds ; in the other region, a vast majority of the 

 mind, as well as almost universal practice, uphold and 

 maintain it. 



" In Russia, the Starovierze, or ' Old Believers,' a very 

 moral sect of dissenters from the Greek Church, look with 

 horror on the use of tobacco. 



" These are very interesting physiological facts, w^ll 

 worthy of calm study on the part of those whose feelings 

 wall permit them to look at the matter coolly, and whose 

 minds are capacious enough to take in and balance con- 

 tradictory opinions and testimony. Climate gradually 

 affects constitution and temperament. It has so affected, 

 I believe, but in different ways, the two regions of Xorth 

 America to which I have referred. 



" Upon constitutions and temperaments so diversely 

 altered, the constituents of tobacco act differently ; and 

 thus the broadest assertions, both of the abusers and the 

 defenders of tobacco in the several regions, may be strictly 

 true, though decidedly opposed to each other, and entirely 

 contradictory. There is much Avisdom in the Irish form 

 of equivocal assent to a doubtful assertion : ' True for 

 you^ — meaning, 'with my knowledge you would think 

 differently.' 



*' Again, in New England it is alleged as a strong 

 moral argument against the use of tobacco, that it pro- 

 vokes thirst, and leads almost necessarily to excess in 

 drinking, to frequent intoxication, and to all the evils 

 which flow from it. This, which is sometimes alleged 

 at home, and often with truth, is singularly at variance 

 with its reputed effects among the Asiatic nations. 

 Mr. Lane, the translator of ' llie Arabian Nights,' says, 

 that, ' being in a slight degree exhilarating, and at the 

 same time soothing, and unattended by the injurious 



M 



