ORIGINAL POETRY AND ANECDOTES,
BEING INTENDED AS AN AMUSING AND INSTRUCTIVE VOLUME
FOR ALL
GENUINE LOVERS OF THE HERB,

BY HENRY JAMES MELLER, ESQ.

“I do assert and will affirm it before any prince in Europe, to be the most sovereign and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man.”
Captain Bobadil.—Every Man in his Humour.

LONDON:
EFFINGHAM WILSON,
Royal Exchange.
1832.

TO
H. R. H. THE DUKE OF SUSSEX,
This little Work,
AS A
TRIFLING TOKEN OF VENERATION FOR HIS CHARACTER
AND ESTEEM FOR HIS TASTE,
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.

PREFACE.

Many an excellent cause has been lost through the want of sound arguments, founded on a knowledge of the case, to support and place it in its proper light. None, perhaps, more than smoking and snuff-taking, the propriety of which, in the upper orders of life, have been and are, whether as regards their social or medicinal qualities, so frequently called in question by their enemies. These, the author is sorry to say, by the use of a few specious arguments, that chiefly pass current in refined society—the ladies in particular—have, strongly aided by prejudice, often made the defence succumb to the attack—an unpardonable weakness on the part of a consumer of the herb, who is naturally enough expected to know the entire history of the favorite of his adoption. Unacquainted with the excellence of his subject, its importance and consequence in ancient and modern annals—its high worshippers and eulogists, medical, and non-medical, with its many endearing and social virtues acknowledged over the far greater part of the world; he, the Author asserts, unacquainted with the above data and references, opposes but a feeble barrier to the sweeping and general assertions of his adversary.

In the above glorious cause (i. e. Anti-Smokers and Snuff-Takers v. Lovers of the Herb) the Author himself holds a brief in the defence as counsel, and flattering himself he has made himself fully master of the case, he begs to impart it as a proper, if not an absolutely requisite accompaniment to all lovers of the ‘soothing leaf.’ The prejudices against smoking are numerous. Smoking that is called unsocial, the author affirms to be the common source of harmony and comfort,—the badge of good fellowship in almost every state, kingdom, and empire. Aye, from the English settlers in the wildernesses of America, where the Calumet or Pipe of Peace is smoked by the natives, to the turbaned infidel of the East—from the burning zone of Africa to the icy regions of the North. In fact, in almost every clime and condition of society it is known as a common sign, or freemasonry of friendly feeling and social intercourse. In the East, the first act of hospitality is proffering the pipe with its invariable accompaniment coffee, which is more or less observed under various modifications over nearly the rest of the habitable world.