INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. I 7 



met from the first with great favor, being at the present 

 time more extensively used here than in any country 

 of the world, not excepting the countries of original 

 production. 



Thus in a course of a few centuries has a berry, until 

 then entirely unknown as an article of diet, except to the 

 semi-savage tribes of Ethiopia and Abyssinia, made its 

 way through the whole civilized world. In the nations 

 professing the religion of Mahomet it is drunk at all 

 hours of the day, and during the night by all ranks 

 and classes of the people, from the Sultan and the 

 Mufti to the merchant, the artisan and the peasant. 

 While among the nations professing Christianity, by 

 whom it has been known for a couple of centuries, it is 

 still regarded as a luxury, but indulged in, more or less, 

 by all classes and conditions of society. In none of the 

 states of Christendom was its use ever opposed by relig- 

 ious fanaticism, nor had it to encounter much opposition 

 from political jealousy, except for a brief period in Eng- 

 land, when its use was interdicted by Charles II, But, 

 like every other innovation which has occupied the 

 human mind, it could not fail to occasion a difference of 

 opinion among medical experts, social reformers and 

 similar bodies. Its history, at the present time, being 

 only valuable as an example of a commodity for which 

 there is a universal craving amongst mankind in general, 

 civilized as well as savage, and to illustrate how it has 

 struggled successfully, and at length triumphantly, over 

 religious superstition, political opposition, physiological 

 prejudice, fiscal restrictions, exorbitant taxes, differential 

 duties and an endless accumulation of antiquated obstruc- 

 tions. Yet, still, in common with other important neces- 

 saries of life, it has never attained to the natural state 

 of " unrestricted competition." 



