CHAPTER VIII. 



STRAY LEAVES FROM THE INDIAN WEED. 



The pungent, nose-refreshing weed, 



Which, whether pulverised, it gain 



A speedy passage to the brain, 



Or, whether touched with fire, it rise 



In circling eddies to the skies, 



Does thought more quicken and refine 



Than all the breath of all the nine. 



COWPER. 



How dearly the late Poet Laureate, Tennyson, treasured 

 his briar-root ; how with his ' silent friend ' he would seek 

 seclusion, drawing unfailing solace from an inexhaustible 

 tobacco jar, belongs to the social history of our times. In 

 the fulness of their hearts, lovers of the weed have declared 

 that in it they have found ' the only thing in life that fumes 

 without fretting.' If to this excellence be added the further 

 one of assuaging the fretful, we shall have the whole philo- 

 sophy of smoking in a nutshell. Because of these rare 

 virtues paterfamilias will now and then forego the social 

 distinction of occupying the paternal chair that he may enjoy 

 the comforts of a quiet pipe away from all the blessed cherubs 

 of domesticity. For these, the idolised bachelor, weary of 

 loving attentions (the ungrateful being ! ) will watch his op- 

 portunity for flight, and slipping away unseen, will make off 



