BLESSING SNEEZEES. 267 



The box is used, the book laid by, as dead, 

 With snuff, not Scripture, there the soul is fed ; 

 For where to heaven the hands by one of those 

 Are lifted, twenty have them at the nose ; 

 And while some pray, to be from sudden death 

 Deliver'd, others snuff to stop their breath." 



In his preface the author says : " The principal 

 maladies produced by the misapplication of snuff take 

 their rise, from the violent convulsive motion that 

 nature makes use of in sneezing; " and he then con- 

 tinues, " I don't remember, nor do I believe, that 

 sneezing has hitherto been reckoned by any author, 

 ancient or modern, amongst the causes of consump- 

 tion." He then adroitly turns aside to his own pur- 

 pose the old custom of invoking a blessing on sneezers, 

 a custom which dates from the most remote times, by 

 asking :• " I should be glad to be informed how the 

 common salutation, * God bless you ! ' when anybody 

 sneezes, became so much in vogue ; if it were not 

 from the dreadful convulsions, and sometimes sudden 

 deaths, that have been the fatal consequences of those 

 impetuous shocks." The following story, apropos of 

 this, is in Menagiana : — 



' ' Un petit-maitre, apres mauvais chance, 

 Sortoit du jeu la tabatiere en main. 

 Un gueux passoit, qui vient a lui soudain 

 Lui demandant l'aumone avec instance. 

 Des deux cotez grande etoit Tindigence. 

 II ne me reste, ami, dib le joueur, 

 Que le tabac. En veux tu ? Serviteur, 

 Repond le gueux, qui n' etoit pas trop nice, 

 Nul besoin n'ai d'eternuer, seigneur, 

 Chacun me dit assez, 'Dieu vous benisse.' : ' 



