“Have you not reason then to be ashamed, and to forbeare this filthie noveltie so basely grounded, so foolishly received, and so grossly mistaken, in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof, sinning against God, harming yourselves both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby, the markes and vanities vpon you: by the custome thereof, making yourselves to be wondered at by all forreinne civill nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned: a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.”
What a pity it is, James never smoked; instead of this long tirade against the most cheerful of all pastimes, we should have had an eulogy, glowing with the warmth and feeling of truth from the head and heart. From the very gall perceivable at times, one could easily know he was an utter stranger to the gentle sympathy of a pipe. He ridicules and condemns that, which, like many others, he knows not, and therefore cannot appreciate. Had he but put the pipe fairly upon its trial, and found it guilty of the mischiefs ascribed to it, then could we have excused him; but to conceive ideas not founded upon truth and justice and the welfare of the kingdom he was called upon to govern, and to act upon those ideas, by the framing of arbitrary laws, repressing the tastes of the nation at large, raises in its remembrance an indignation in our mind, that takes repeated whiffs of our ‘German’ to quell.
Now the truly immense extent of the benefits Europe is indebted to for the introduction of the tobacco-plant, is by no means generally known. For the instruction of our fellow creatures—we say instruction, because probably our numerous readers may never have met with them before,—we shall proceed to enlighten the world upon the subject. If we look backward to the earlier periods of History, what barbarous and savage manners do we not mark characterizing the people and the times. Rapine and murder stalking hand in hand among them, and scarce at all repressed by laws, divine or human. Now mark, sweet readers, especially if true lovers of the invaluable herb, whose praises we are about singing! Mark what “great effects from little causes spring.” No sooner did tobacco make its appearance and get into notice and use, than the passions of all men wooing its soothing influence, gradually began to receive a change. As it got more generally diffused, its influence might almost be termed magical; the sword, in a great degree, was exchanged for the quill, the wine-cup for the coffee-cup (thence its use in Turkey always with smoking), and letters began to flourish—the first grand step towards that civilization I shall prove it was gradually destined to effect in the world. Doubtless, like many other great writers, who open out a new light to the world, we shall have enough of sceptics, as opponents, to contend with; but we are sanguine from the facts we shall clearly establish, that far more is to be attributed to the powers of tobacco, than millions dream of.
In the first place, it is too well known to admit of much doubt, that tobacco, whether smoked or taken as snuff, exercises a very considerable power upon the mind, more especially when taken in considerable quantities. When such is the case, the faculties are refined and exalted to a degree of spirited buoyancy, that forms a strange and pleasing contrast to the usual unstimulated lethargic state of the mind. We can only compare it, though in a much milder, and more inoffensive degree, to the species of delirium the Turks so vividly describe, when labouring under the effects of opium. The intellectual senses, more particularly that part of them forming the imagination, become so much more powerful and pervading, that its conceptions receive a warmth and strength of colouring they never can, under common excitement.
Now tobacco, as we have recorded, was first brought to England in the reign of Elizabeth, who greatly patronized it among the nobles and poorer orders, by whom it came speedily into general use. Most mighty herb!—the effects of thy worship were soon visible, for where do we find a reign so great and glorious either for victories by land and sea, or the distinguished talent and genius, whether in the camp or cabinet, it fostered at home. Then was it, that Shakespeare—the magnificent Shakespeare, (blest and honored was the reign in which he drew life) burst forth like a star destined to excite the astonishment of the world he came to throw the effulgent light of his genius upon. He was a smoker.
Then, to sketch forth the gigantic march of intellect, in the ages of which we write, came forth those luminaries of the world; Hobbes, the parent of Locke’s philosophy, the profound philosopher Lord Bacon, the most illustrious mathematician and philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, and the singularly talented metaphysician Locke, each and all of whom were celebrated for their devotion to the soothing and stimulating powers of a pipe! It is related of Hobbes, who was one of the most profound thinkers of his time, that as soon as the dinner was over, he used to retire to his study and had his candle with ten or twelve pipes of tobacco laid by him; then shutting the door he fell to smoking, thinking and writing for several hours together. Locke and Bacon smoked much for recreation; the latter of whom probably was indebted to the practice for the preservation of his life in the plague of 1665, from whose contagious influence in London he sought safety in the country and his pipe.
Now, to what, we should like to know, are to be attributed the mighty and successful efforts of these wonderful men, who may justly be considered the founders of modern civilization and literature, but the all—the far pervading fumes of the sovereign tobacco-leaf they worshipped with such devotion. To its exhilarating influence and invigorating aid, exciting the imagination to realms of undiscovered beauties, are we indebted for those works that shall live, while time is,—the wonder of this and all future ages.
Are we singular in our opinion? Mark, learn, and inwardly digest, ye unbelievers, what the learned Dr. Raphael Thorious says on the subject:—
| “Of cheering bowls I mean to sing the praise, And of the herb that can the poet’s fancy raise; Aid me, O! father Phœbus I invoke, Fill me a pipe (boy) of that fragrant smoke, That I may drink the God into my brain; And so enabled, write a noble strain. For nothing great or high can come from thence, Where that blest plant denies its influence.” |
Smile on, ye critics; but let us ask ye, if those works that have so strong a claim to our respect, would ever have come into existence had there been no tobacco, to rarify and stimulate the mind. No!—must be your candid answer, if only in verification of the old saying, ‘No pipe, no Parr.’ Then, what mighty blessings are we not indebted for to the much-aspersed, calumniated, and insulted herb. Nor is the fact of its consequence in regard to these first great discoverers in science, the only proofs that exist of its reputation; successive generations, under the weed’s cheering auspices, have but continued what they so ably began.