178 ST NICOTINE 



^13,000,000 a year. The increased and constantly increas- 

 ing consumption of tobacco, prodigious as it was in the eyes 

 of our forefathers, was not peculiar to England. Dr. 

 Everard in his treatise on the Wonderful Virtues of 

 Tobacco taken in a Pipe * says that its use had spread with 

 amazing rapidity all over the known world, and that its 

 cultivation and manufacture gave employment to millions of 

 people who, were the consumption stopped, would probably 

 perish for want of food. He likens the rise and progress 

 of the industry to Elias's cloud, ' which was no bigger than 

 a man's hand ... It hath suddenly covered the face 

 of the Earth : the low countries, Germany, Poland, Arabia, 

 Persia, Turkey; almost all countries drive a trade in it, 

 and there is no commodity that hath advanced so many 

 small fortunes to gain great estates in the world.' The 

 translator adds, 'Scholars take it much, and many grave 

 and great men take tobacco to make them more serviceable 

 in their callings. . . Soldiers and seamen cannot but 

 want it during their arduous duties in cold and tempestuous 

 weather. Farmers, ploughmen, porters, labourers, plead 

 for it, saying, they find great refreshment by it.' 



English smokers cared little for the fulminations against 

 the indulgence issued from high places. Even a taxation 

 which in these days would provoke a riot merely drew from 

 them a mild growl. An example of this more excellent 

 way is found in Dr. Barclay's Nepenthes, or the Vertues 

 of Tobacco. In the tranquil spirit of a devotee of St 

 Nicotine he addresses to 'My Lord Bishop Murray' the 

 following lines : 



* Published at Antwerp, 1659, and translated by I.R. 

 Dedicated to the Merchants and Planters of Tobacco. 



