The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-08 00:00:00

Iwe think there may be much comfort in " the pipe of
peace."
From the feathered calumet smoked in the wigwam of
I the Pawnee brave to the dudheen glowing in the White-
I boy's lurking-place— from the narghileh of the Kurdish"
chief to the hubble bubble of the Hindoo rajah, therel!
but a step. The bag of St. Giles's thrusts a black cat?
between her shrivelled lips; and the Mexican lady orna-
ments her rosy mouth with the, too transitory ciga-
retto (delicious and fondling diminutive). The pipe bairns
sweetly in the black tent of the Arab, and lights the dim
cabin of the pirate of the Levant. It is kindled by tip
Russian wolf-hunter, and its black ashes spot the white
snows of the Jungfrau.
There is something almost religions in this universality.
Every pipe is a censer in which we burnt fragrant incense
to propitiate the great azure devil. This Indian herb is
soul-soothing, dream-inspiring—it cheers and not inebri-
ates— delicious as opium, it is more harmless, and no leas
vision-giving.

But tobacco has something to say for itself. The plants
of Gods earth are not given alone to blight and kill.
Every poison is a medicine to some animal or another.
Prussic acid heals, and arsenic soothes. Tobacco is a safe
aperient, detergent, expectorant, and diuretic. It abates
the cholic, and moderates the agonies of spasmodic asthma.
It stimulates the kidneys and diminishes dropsy. The
juice cleanses ulcers and is useful in cutaneous diseases. It
is given extensively in epilepsy, and has been used to ad.
vantage in cases of lock-jaw and hydrophobia.
It is actually the base of one of the best cosmetics—the
Balm of Columbia • it cures the mange in dogs, and kills
the blight on plants.
A benevolent man, who proves his wish to save time by
throwing it away on foolish calculations, has discovered
that, in 40 years, a snuff-taker devotes 24 months to blow-
ing his nose. In the same time he has also spent, we have
calculated, 18 months in putting on his stockings and pull-
ing them off again. He proves that "snuff-takers form a
large portion of the inmates of all lunatic asylums !—but
so do greengrocers and costermongers.

The history of smoking is brief. It was invented by
savages, as the saw and the lyre were. Sir Franks Drake
brought the leaf first to Europe, in 1560, and Sir Walter
Raleigh introduced the practice of smoking it about 1584.
But long before this, Jean Nicot, the French ambassador
in Portugal, had carried it to France, and taught Marie de
Medicis to take it in snuff. From Nicot it derives its bo-
tanical designation, Nicotiana; and its alias, tobacco, comes
from the indian name of the island Tobago. That wonder-
ful people, the Chinese, however, seem to have always
smoked tobacco ; and the Irish are known to have used
some herbs possessing similar properties, a dudheen being,
it is said, inserted in the helmet of an old monument of
one of their early kings. Raleigh smoked in his dungeon
in the Tower while the headsman was grinding his axe.
King James detested the " loathsome thing," and so did
his luckless son ; but Cromwell loved his pipe, and dic-
tated his despatches to Milton over some fine burning
Trinidado, or pleasant smelling Nicotine.
Perhaps the most surprising thing in literature is that
no mention of tobacco is found in all Shakspere, although
the earlier Spenser mentions it several times, and the
later Ben Jonson actually founded plays upon the prac-
tice.

Ben describes his gallants smoking on the stage, and
sendingt heir pacres for a light. He describes them learn-
ing smoking tricks of distinct professors ; and one of his
best characters, Abel Drugger, is a tobacconist. He has
jokes on the shape of pipes ; though Shakspere, equally
fall of the manners of his age, is quite silent. Was it some
feeling of conventional propriety? Yet he who drew Pis-
tol, the alehouse bully, Falstaff, the wit at the ordinary.
and Sir Andrew:Aguecheek, the creature of the court, could
have had no such scruple. We leave the question to
puzzl9 future ages of antiquarians, thinking it quite enough
for a man to ask a difficult question without being com-
pelled to answer it.

We could go on extracting with prodigal free-
dom, but we are obliged to content ourselves and.
our readers with only two or three more crayon
scraps from "The Englander's Note-book" :
The genii granted Hassan two wishes ; the first was to
know the future ; his second, to forget what he had
known.

To look too long and intently on any of the three faces
of time, the past, the present, or the future, is to grow
mad. _ .

A sneer is the easiest mode I know of asserting a supe-
riority over the rest of mankind.
For a pretty woman to wear too many jewels, is as
foolish as to put three feet of gilt frame to one foot of
picture.
We shake hands with Mr. Thornbury in a spirit
of impulsive sympathy and grateful obligation ;
inasmuch that our bilious indication has materially
subsided ; our ferocious chilblain offers less tempta-
tion to volunteer the Tarantula dance ; and the
atmosphere appears to have a positive gleam of
sunlight playing about the tallest chimney-pots.
We conclude by avowing that the man or woman
who is not somewhat wiser and happier after look-
ing on these cabinet pictures of " Art and Nature,
need never evince any anxiety to be " entered on
our list of friends."