The Literature of Tobacco 223 



Moralists, such as James, while not admitting virtues 

 to tobacco medically administered, supported the 

 physicians and declaimed against the abuse — i.e., the 

 common use of tobacco. So wrote Burton in the 

 ' Anatomy of Melancholy ' : ' Tobacco, rare, super- 

 excellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all the 

 panaceas, potable gold and philosopher's stone, a 

 sovereign remedy to all diseases, but as it is com- 

 monly abused by most men, which take it, as tinkers 

 do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of 

 goods, lands, and health.' 



But where the hatred was not wholly prejudice 

 tobacco was condemned for the Puritanical reason, 

 not that it injured, but that it gave pleasure to its 

 users. 



There were, however, some worthy physicians who 

 did not hesitate to praise smoking. In 1614 Dr. 

 William Barclay issued ' Nepenthes, or the Vertues 

 of Tobacco,' in his dedication to the Bishop of 

 Murray, calling on him to defend ' this sacred herb,' 

 incapable of injury : 



' A stranger plant, shipwracked on our coast, 

 Is come to helpe this cold phlegmatic soyle.' 



He enthusiastically defends tobacco as having ' much 

 heavenlie vertue in store,' piously describing America 

 as ' the countrie which God hath honoured and blessed 

 with this happie and holy herb.' With tobacco and 

 a pipe he declares he will, ' God willing,' overcome 

 many maladies, concluding with the dictum : 



' Tobacco neither altereth health nor hew, 

 Ten thousand thousand kaow that it is true.' 



