"The lady opposed it, and I joined with her in maintaining it was impossible, that a spirit so regulated as his could give offence to any. I knew not that contention could be rendered so sweet and pleasurable a thing to the nerves as I then felt it. We remained silent, without any sensation of that foolish pain which takes place when, in a circle, you look for ten minutes in one another's faces without saying a word.
Horn Snuff-boxes.
"Whilst this lasted, the monk rubb'd his horn box upon the sleeve of his tunic; and as soon as it had acquired a little air of brightness by the friction, he made a low bow and said, 'twas too late to say whether it was the weakness or goodness of our tempers which had involved us in this contest, but be it as it would, he begg'd we would exchange boxes. In saying this, he presented this to me with one, as he took mine from me in the other; and having kissed it, with a stream of good nature in his eyes, he put it into his bosom, and took his leave. I guard this box as I would the instrumental parts of my religion, to help my mind on to something better: in truth I seldom go abroad without it; and oft and many a time have I called up by it the courteous spirit of its owner, to regulate my own in the jostlings of the world; they had found full employment for his, as I learnt from his story, till about the forty-fifth year of his age, when upon some military services ill-requited, and meeting at the same time with a disappointment in the tenderest of passions, he abandoned the sword and the sex together, and took sanctuary, not so much in his convent as in himself. I feel a damp upon my spirits, as I am going to add, that in my last return through Calais, upon inquiring after Father Lorenzo, I heard he had been dead near three months, and was buried, not in his convent, but according to his desire, in a little cemetery belonging to it about two leagues off. I had a strong desire to see where they had laid him, when, upon pulling out his little horn box, as I sat by his grave, and plucking a nettle or two at the head of it, which had no business to grow there, they all struck together so forcibly upon my affections that I burst into a flood of tears—but I am as weak as a woman; I beg the world not to smile, but pity me."
Many pleasing effusions have been written promoted doubtless by a sneeze among which the following on "A pinch of Snuff" from "The Sportsman Magazine," exhibits the custom and the benefits ascribed to its indulgence.
"With mind or body sore distrest,
Or with repeated cares opprest,
What sets the aching heart at rest?
A pinch of snuff!
"Or should some sharp and gnawing pain
Creep round the noddle of the brain,
What puts all things to rights again?
A pinch of snuff!
"When speech and tongue together fail,
What helps old ladies in their tale,
And adds fresh canvass to their sail?
A pinch of snuff!
"Or when some drowsy parson prays,
And still more drowsy people gaze,
What opes their eyelids with amaze?
A pinch of snuff!