The Literature of Tobacco 231 



be literature. With rare charm and humour are the 

 subtle pleasures of smoking discussed, and its practice 

 placed in its true position, not merely as a physical 

 habit, but as a cult, with its mental and spirituelle^ 

 aspects. So truly does it reveal the smoker's inner 

 mind, that it is surprising to learn, on Mr. Barrie's 

 own confession, that he was then only a novitiate in 

 the mystery of smoking, ' gingerly pulling my first 

 pipe instead of being, as I represented, a hardened 

 smoker.' Even to the non-smoker ' My Lady Nico- 

 tine ' appeals, and tobacco appears in a fresh light. 

 It is a worthy tribute to tobacco that on no other 

 habit could a series of essays so charming, humorous, 

 and delicately philosophical be written without 

 offending against the laws of refinement and good 

 taste. 



Of the historical aspect of tobacco and smoking 

 little has been written. Small pamphlet histories are 

 not inconsiderable in numbers, but painfully redun- 

 dant in matter, all being more or less rechauffe 

 editions of each other. The bulk of the matter in 

 each is the same, with an occasional sidelight on the 

 contemporary position of tobacco. 



Fairholt's ' Tobacco : Its History and Associa- 

 tions,' published in 1859, is the only work which 

 can claim to be a history of the herb. Fairholt, 

 though not a smoker, was especially fitted by his 

 antiquarian lore and his position in the tobacco trade 

 to become the chronicler of tobacco. His work is 

 especially valuable for its minute and complete 

 account of the early history of smoking. But 

 beyond the middle of the seventeenth century he 



