IX SINGAPORE. 
is so much more dangerous because a person who is once addicted to 
it, can never leave it off.” 
A Chinese author, Koo King Shan, says, « it destroys life, the 
poor smoker who has pawned every article in his possession still re¬ 
mains idle and inactive, and when he has no means of borrowing mo¬ 
ney, and the periodical thirst returns hard upon him, he will pawn 
♦ 
his wives, and sell his daughters. Such are the inevitable conse¬ 
quences ! In the province of Nyankway I once saw a man named 
Chin, who being childless purchased a concubine, afterwards when 
his money was expended, and all other means failed him, being un¬ 
able to resist the desire for the pipe, he sold this same concubine 
and received for her several tens of dollars, this money being expend¬ 
ed he went and hung himself.” 
Even the classical De Quincy confirms the mastery of the fascina¬ 
tion in Ms “ Suspiria de profundis”, being a sequal to his Confessions, 
“ at the close of this little work the reader was instructed to believe, • 
and truly instructed, that I had mastered the tyranny of opium. The. 
fact is that twice I mastered it, and by efforts more prodigious in the 
second of these cases than in the first. Twice I sunk, twice I. rose 
again, a third time I sunk, partly from the cause mentioned, partly 
from other causes. During this third prostration before the dark 
idol, and after some years, new and monstrous phenomena began to 
arise.” Now reader mark how akin these mental evils are to the 
physical ones, and believe in their truth, for they are registered by a 
victim who would fain in the beautiful shadowing of his imagery dull, 
the perception of his readers. “ For a time these phenomena” he 
says, “ were neglected as accidents, or palliated by some remedies I 
knew of. But when I could no longer conceal from myself that 
these dreadful symptoms were moving forward for ever, by a pace 
steadily, solemnly, and equally increasing, I endeavoured with some 
feeling of panic for a third time to retrace my steps. But I had not 
reversed my motions for many weeks, before I became profoundly 
aware that this was impossible *. or in the imagery of my dreams, which 
translated every thing into their own language, I saw through vast 
avenues of gloom , those towering gates of Ingress, which hitherto had 
v 
