Undoubtedly we have among us, and have had in England since the days when Raleigh introduced the ‘Indian’s herb’ into the royal palace and made it agreeable to his queen and fashionable everywhere, some remarkable examples of great smokers occupying the highest positions in the domain of intellect. Instances crowd the memory. The tall, dark figure of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury presents itself, he whose Leviathan and other philosophical works stirred into activity the intellect of Europe, and who attained the ripe age of ninety-two. Sir Isaac Newton smoked, even in the presence of the lady who honoured him with well-meant attentions. Seated one day quietly by his side, happy in anticipation of what the future might bring forth, Sir Isaac suddenly seized her hand—now the blissful moment had arrived!—but, instead of tenderly pressing it within his own, he probed her little finger into the bowl of his pipe to remove some obstruction. The story told by Sir David Brewster points a moral—ladies should be chary of lavishing their affection on philosophers, they are so very absent-minded. Divinity furnishes a host of devotees to the pipe. Leading the throng are Dr. Henry Aldrich, of Christ Church, Oxford; Dr. Parr, whose Greek was the admiration of ripe scholars and the terror of little boys; who overwhelmed his friends with torrents of eloquence and clouds of tobacco-smoke; Robert Hall, England’s greatest pulpit orator, and many another divine burned incense continually at the shrine of Nicotiana; while towering in the forefront of the great tobacco-smokers of the Victorian age are the figures of Carlyle and Tennyson. But these illustrious examples of great tobacco smokers are, in respect to the whole community, altogether exceptional, and may be regarded as having no more bearing on any general rule applicable to all men than had their individual capacity for imbibing, say, ‘sweet waters.’ It may be observed, however, that those who pass severe censure on the smoking habit seem to overlook the fact that men do not eat or drink tobacco; that the prudent smoker is quite contented if its ambient fumes gently float about him, regaling his olfactory sense. It can never satisfy reasonable inquiry to be told that deadly results follow the administration, not of the smoke, but of a single drop of the essential oil of tobacco to a dog, that dies of old age at fifteen years; or to a rabbit, that breeds seven times a year and dies at the age of five. Far above theorising there is the teaching of experience, and if each would-be smoker will in this, as in other things, be guided by this unfailing monitor, and act upon the dictates of common sense, no harm will come to him.
There are people of so gloomy a temperament that they would not let a man cultivate a flower-garden or listen to the songs of birds on the Sabbath; who look upon music as a sensuous indulgence, and reading as idleness. To these we have nothing to say; it is their misfortune to think and feel so. Stripping the argument of the puerilities and exaggerations of prejudice, let us recognise the broad fact that men of every nation and in every climate do smoke; a fact that is universal needs no apology.
The prophylactic properties of tobacco will be considered from an historical point of view in the next chapter, headed, ‘The Use and Abuse of Tobacco.’
This chapter first appeared in The Nineteenth Century for May 1897. Mr. W. T. Stead, commenting upon it in his Review of Reviews, agreed with the writer’s firm stand against juvenile smoking, and expressed the opinion that ere long an act of Parliament would be entered in the Statute Book prohibiting the sale of tobacco to youths under the age of 16. Unavailing efforts to this end were subsequently made by private members of the House of Commons. At last the Legislature has taken up the subject, and under the tactful conduct of the measure of Mr. Herbert Samuel, the Under-Secretary for the Home Office, a Bill has passed the third reading making the sale of cigarettes to children illegal. This step in the right direction will have the effect of awakening public attention to the subject, and of stirring up parents to a more watchful supervision over their children’s habits.
CHAPTER V
THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO
Ye hot, ye cold, ye Rheumatick draw nigh;
In this rich leafe a sovereign dose doth lie.