"Human civilization has not yet learned to found on the sense of smell aught but the moderate enjoyment derived from snuffing, which, confined within the narrow circle of a few sensations, renders us incapable of entering into the most delicate pleasures of that sense.
"Snuff procures us the rapture of a tactile irritation, of a slight perfume; but, above all, it furnishes the charm of an intermittent occupation which soothes us by interrupting, from time to time, our labor. At other times it renders idleness less insupportable to us, by breaking it into the infinite intervals which pass from one pinch of snuff to another. Sometimes our snuff-box arouses us from torpor and drowsiness; sometimes, it occupies our hands when in society we do not know where to put them or what to do with them. Finally, snuff and snuffing are things which we can love, because they are always with us; and we can season them with a little vanity if we possess a snuff-box of silver or of gold, which we open continually before those who humbly content themselves with snuff-boxes of bone or of wood. We gladly concede the pleasures of snuffing to men of all conditions, and to ladies who, having passed a certain age, or who, being deformed, have no longer any sex; but we solemnly and resolutely refuse the snuff-box to young and beautiful women, who ought to preserve their delicate and pretty noses for the odors of the mignonette and the rose."
With royalty snuff has been a prime favorite. Charles III. of Spain had a great predilection for rappee snuff, but only indulged his inclination by stealth, and particularly while shooting, when he imagined himself to be unnoticed. Frederick the Great and Napoleon[61] both loved and used large quantities of the "pungent dust." Of the former the following anecdote is related:—
"The cynical temper of Frederick the Great is well known. Once when his sister, the Duchess of Brunswick, was at Potsdam, Frederick made to the brave Count Schwerin the present of a gold snuff-box. On the lid inside was painted the head of an ass. Next day, when dining with the king, Schwerin, with some ostentation, put his snuff-box on the table. Wishing to turn the joke against Schwerin, the king called attention to the snuff-box. The Duchess took it up and opened it. Immediately she exclaimed, 'What a striking likeness! In truth, brother, this is one of the best portraits I have ever seen of you.' Frederick, embarrassed, thought his sister was carrying the jest too far. She passed the box to her neighbor, who uttered similar expressions to her own. The box made the round of the table, and every one was fervently eloquent about the marvelous resemblance. The king was puzzled what to make of all this. When the box at last reached his hands, he saw, to his great surprise, that his portrait was really there. Count Schwerin had simply, with exceeding dispatch, employed an artist to remove the ass's head, and to paint the king's head instead. Frederick could not help laughing at the Count's clever trick, which was really the best rebuke of his own bad taste and want of proper and respectful feeling."
"As Frederick William I., of Prussia, was eminently the Smoking King, so his son Frederick the Great was eminently the Snuffing King. Perhaps smoking harmonizes best with action; and it might, without much stretch of fancy, be shown that as the Prussian monarchy was founded on tobacco smoke, it flourished on snuff. Possibly, if Napoleon the Great, who like Frederick the Great, was an excessive snuffer, had smoked as well as snuffed, he might have preserved his empire from overthrow, seeing that smoking steadies and snuffing impels. The influences of smoking and snuffing on politics and war are ascertainable. What the effect of chewing is on political and military affairs, it is not so easy to discover. We recommend the subject for meditation to the profoundest metaphysicians. How many of the American politicians and generals have been chewers as well as snuffers and smokers? Is there to be some mysterious affinity between chewing and the revolutions, especially the social revolutions of the future? May not apocalyptic interpreters be able to show that chewing is the symbol of anarchy and annihilation?"
Scotch Snuff-mills.
When first used in Europe snuff was made ready for use by the takers—each person being provided with a box or "mill," as they were termed, to reduce the leaves to powder.
In connection with this, the following may not be irrelevent:—