230 The Soverane Herbe 



Inimitable in its grace and gaiety is Calverley's 

 ' Ode.' Mr. Kipling, in ' Betrothed,' contrasts smoke- 

 less matrimony with a cigar-lit bachelorhood. ' You 

 must choose between your cigar or me,' said Maggie. 

 And the bachelor did : 



' Open the old cigar-box ; let me consider awhile. 

 Here is a mild Manila, there is a wifely smile. 



' Which is the better portion — bondage bought with a ring, 

 Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string ? 



' Counsellors cunning and silent, comforters true and tried, 

 And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride. 



' Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes, 

 Peace in the hush of twilight, balm ere my eyelids close. 



' Open the old cigar-box ; let me consider anew. 

 Old friends, and who is Maggie, that I should abandon you ? 



' Light me another Cuba ; I hold to my first-sworn vows : 

 If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for spouse !' 



Besides the numberless verses by poetasters of the 

 past and present centuries, Mr. W. E. Henley and 

 Mr. Le Gallienne have prettily sung of the incom- 

 parable virtues of tobacco : 



' Nature's idea, Physicke's rare perfection, 

 Cold Rheum's expeller, and the wit's direction.' 



Scattered among the works of great writers, his- 

 torians, philosophers, teachers, and novelists are 

 passages in praise of the consoling and inspiriting 

 virtues of tobacco. 



Charming and unique is Mr. J. M. Barrie's ' My 

 Lady Nicotine,' by far the best book strictly about 

 tobacco, the only smoking book that can claim to 



