March 21.
Benedict.
Concerning this saint in our almanacs, see vol. i. p. 380.
A Surprising Calculation.
For the Every-Day Book.
In the summer of 1825, a meeting was held at Tunbridge in Kent, by some gentlemen interested in the formation of a rail road, in that neighbourhood; at which was a present a young gentleman well known for astonishing celerity in resolving difficult calculations by the aid of memory alone. One of the company, a great snuff-taker, and good mathematician, proposed the following, (as he thought,) puzzling question;
“If I take so many (a given quantity) of pinches of snuff every quarter of an hour, how many pinches shall I have taken in fifteen years?”
The young gentleman in little more than a minute gave his answer.
The snuff-taker called for pen, ink, and paper, to examine the answer, when after a considerable time he declared it erroneous; upon hearing which, the calculator asked the snuff-taker if he had allowed for the leap-years? being answered in the negative, the snuff-taker was requested to add them, when the calculator’s answer was found to be correct to a single pinch, to the no small astonishment and delight of the assembled party.
A. S.
The preceding anecdote is wholly new, and, after a “pinch of snuff,” the editor introduces a topic somewhat corresponding.
“Tobacco.”
“Ex fumo dare lucem.”
To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
Sir,
The use of tobacco, “that stinking weed so much abused to God’s dishonour,” as Stow expresses himself, having become so common, as to be almost “naturalized on English ground;” perhaps a short article on the subject at this seasonable period, may not be unacceptable to the numerous readers of the Every-Day Book. Let me however be understood in the outset.
I do not mean to write a historical—nor yet critical—nor yet a poetical essay on my subject—no! I merely wish to “cull a few leaves” from the “fragrant herb,” and leave them for you to burn, or your readers to cut up, or smoke, at their good pleasure. Dropping all metaphor, the subject is worth attention, and treated with judgment, might be rendered highly interesting. Resigning all pretension however to that quality, I have merely collected a few “passages,” which, I hope, will be considered worthy of a place in your interesting miscellany.
“Commencing our commencement,” says the old French proverb, my medical dictionary, (Hooper’s) has the following under this head:—
“Tobacco. See Nicotiana.”
“Nicotiana. (From M. Nicot, who first brought it into Europe.) Tobacco.”
“1st. The name of a genus of plants in the Linnean system. Class Pentandria; order, Monogynia.”
“2nd. The former pharmacopæial name of the officinal tobacco,” &c. &c.
Hooper’s Medical Dictionary,
4th edit. p. 594.
In that elegant work, “Flora Domestica,” the botanical summary says, “This genus is named from Jean Nicot of Nismes, agent from the king of France to Portugal, who procured the seeds from a Dutchman, and sent them to France. Tobacco, from the island Tobago. The French have many names for it; as, le tabac: Nicotiane from its first introducer; petum [the original Indian appellation;] herbe du grand prieur; herbe à la Reine; herbe sacrìe; herbe propre à tous maux; herbe de St. Croix; &c. &c. Italian, tabacco; terna bona.”
Flora Domestica, 1823. p. 365.
Of these names, the Italian one of “terna bona,” is very singular, and as arbitrary as need be, for example, what connection can there be between tobacco, and the “grand prior,” the “queen’s,” or the “holy cross?” “Propre à tous maux,” is rather too comprehensive an appellation; I have copied but few of these names, many as there may appear to be.
Of all the subjects which have employed the pens of writers, perhaps no one has called forth so great a diversity of opinion as this; and we may perhaps go further, and say, that no other (save only, love and war) has attracted so much notice since its introduction. Popes, poets, historians, kings, and physicians, have dwelt upon its use and abuse, and even historians have condescended to mention it. But to proceed.
With regard to its first introduction into England, Hume says, “chap. xli. Eliz. 1558, 1603,” at the close of the narration of Drake’s attack on the Spanish provinces in the West Indies. “It is thought that Drake’s fleet first introduced the use of tobacco into England.”
In an after part of his work “Appendix, James I. 1603-1625,” he adds,
“After supplying themselves with provisions more immediately necessary for the support of life, the new planters began the cultivating of tobacco; and James notwithstanding his antipathy to that drug, which he affirmed to be pernicious to men’s morals as well as health, gave them permission to enter it in England; and he inhibited by proclamation all importation of it from Spain.”
At this period originated the story of the wetting poor sir Walter Raleigh, received from the hands (and bucket) of his servant; this, however, is too common to deserve transferring to your pages. The following facts, however, are not so generally known. “On the first introduction of tobacco, our ancestors carried its use to an enormous excess, smoking even in the churches, which made pope Urban VIII. in 1624, publish a decree of excommunication against those who used such an unseemly practice; and Innocent XII. A. D. 1690, solemnly excommunicated all those who should take snuff or tobacco, in St. Peter’s church at Rome.” Flora Domestica, p. 367.
This excess is perhaps only equalled by the case of William Breedon, vicar of Thornton, Bucks, “a profound divine, but absolutely the most polite person for nativities in that age;” of whom William Lilly, “student in astrology,” says, “when he had no tobacco, (and I suppose too much drink,) he would cut the bell ropes and smoke them.”—History of Lilly’s Life and Times, p. 44.[86]
To the eulogist of tobacco, who, on [column 195] of your present volume, defies “all daintie meats,” and
——“keeps his kitchen in a box,
And roast meat in a pipe,”
take as an antidote the following from Peter Hausted’s Raphael Thorius: London, 1551.
Let it be damn’d to Hell, and call’d from thence,
Proserpine’s wine, the Furies’ frankincense,
The Devil’s addle eggs.
Hawkins Brown, esq., parodying Ambrose Philips, writes thus prettily to his pipe:—
Little tube of mighty power,
Charmer of an idle hour,
Object of my warm desire;
Lip of wax, and eye of fire;
And thy snowy taper waist,
With my finger gently brac’d; &c.
In our own times the following have appeared.
“La Pipe de Tabac,” a French song to music, by Geweaux, contains the following humorous stanzas:—
“Le soldat baille sous la tente,
Le matelot sur le tillac,
Bientôt ils ont l’âme contente,
Avec la pipe de tabac;
Si pourtant survient une belle,
A l’instant le cœur fait tìc tac,
Et l’Amant oublie auprès d’elle,
Jusqu’à la pipe de tabac.
“Je tiens cette maxime utile,
De ce fameux Monsieur de Crac,
En campagne comme à la ville,
Font tous l’amour et le tabac,
Quand ce grand homme allait en guerre
Il portait dans son petit sac,
Le doux portrait de sa bergère,
Avec la pipe de tabac.”
In the accompanying English version, they are thus imitated:—
See, content, the soldier smiling
Round the vet’ran smoking crew
And the tar, the time beguiling,
Sighs and whiffs, and thinks of Sue.
Calm the bosom; naught distresses;—
Labour’s harvest’s nearly ripe;—
‘Susan’s health;’—the brim he presses,—
Here alone he quits his pipe.
Faithful still to every duty
Ne’er his faithful heart will roam;
Mines of wealth, and worlds of beauty,
Tempt him not from Susan’s home.
From his breast—wherever steering,
Oft a sudden tear to wipe,
Susan’s portrait,—sorrow cheering,
First he draws—and then his pipe!
Our immortal Byron, in his poem of “The Island,” sings thus the praises of “the Indian weed:”—
Sublime tobacco!—which from east to west
Cheers the tar’s labours, or the Turkman’s rest;
Which on the Moslem’s ottoman divides
His hours,—and rivals opium and his brides;
Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand,
Though not less loved, in Wapping or the Strand;
Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe
When tipped with amber, mellow, rich, and ripe;
Like other charmers, wooing the caress
More dazzlingly when daring in full dress;
Yet thy true lovers more admire by far,
Thy naked beauties—— Give me a cigar!
If, Sir, you should deem this communication worthy of your notice, I shall feel inclined to pursue my researches farther; and, whatever the result, allow me in the mean time to subscribe myself,
Your well-wisher,
Fumo.
P. S. Should you, Sir, burn this, the Roman adage, which I have used as my motto, will be once more verified.