Smoking that is termed _low_ and _vulgar_ was, and is, an occasional recreation with most of the crowned heads of Europe, among which may be named his late Majesty, and their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of Sussex and Cumberland--Ferdinand of Spain, and the Emperor Nicholas of Germany--besides very many of the nobility of either empires and kingdoms.
Smoking that is termed _idle_, is singularly popular with mechanics, the most industrious classes of England.
Smoking that is said to be _dirty_ and _filthy_, is in the greatest esteem, among the most moral and cleanly sect in Christianity--the Society of Friends or Quakers.
Smoking that is affirmed to be _revolting_ and _disgusting_, is indulged in by the most rigidly kept women in the world--those of Turkey, who elevated in the dignity of the Haram, are taught to consider a whiff of their lord's _chibouque_ a distinction. Then the ladies of both Old and New Spain, who twining in the mazes of the giddy waltz, take the _cigarros_ from their own pretty lips to transfer to those of their favoured partners. If indeed, royalty be wanted in the female line, since the good old times of Elizabeth, who can be so lamentably ignorant in the annals of smoking, as not to know, that the late _Tumehemalee_, Queen Consort of _Tirahee_, king of the Sandwich Islands, was dotingly fond of a pipe--sensible woman and above all petty prejudices as she was, at our own honoured court.
Now, in regard to snuff, that like smoking is so much abused, coming under the bans of the ignorant and prejudiced, _beastly_ is the word commonly given to its application, though used to the greatest excess in the famed land of _politesse_--France. The most polished and fascinating address is ever followed by the gracefully proffered snuff-box. What a vast deal does it not speak at once in a man's favor, begetting instantly a friendly sympathy in the head that gradually extends to the heart. What does not MOLIERE, their favorite author say, in favor of the herb? for the benefit of casuists we quote the sublime panegyric, which alone ought to confirm the bold lovers of the pipe and box, and 'inspire and fire' the diffident and wavering.
"Quoi que puisse dire Aristote, et toute la philosophie, il n'est rien d'égal au tabac; c'est la passion des honnêtes gens, et qui vit sans tabac, n'est pas digne de vivre. Non seulement il réjouit et purge les cerveaux humains, mais encore il instruit les ames à la vertu et l'on apprend avec lui à devenir honnête homme. Ne voyez-vous pas bien, dès qu'on en prend, de quelle manière obligeante on en use avec tout le monde, et comme on est ravi d'en donner à droit et à gauche, par tout où l'on se trouve? On n'attend pas même que l'on en demande, et l'on court au devant du souhait des gens; tant il est vrai que le tabac inspire des sentimens d'honneur et de vertu à tous ceux qui en prennent."