The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1873-10-09
The Literature Of Smoking.
from the London Globe. I

From the London Globe.
Nothing has been more belauded, nothing
more abused than smoking. At one time, it
has been all the fashion, at another it has
been altogether tabooed; ignored as COM
pletely as it is ignored in the pages ofShaks-
pcare; idoliaed as completely as it was idol
lied by DR.. Parr; cast off as ruthlessly as
Blackstone cast off the Muses. he had wooed
Poets, divines, orators, and historians have
waxed eloquent in its praises, and not less
eloquent have been the furious invectives
hurled against it. 1t has been one Of those
thiugs--there are not many-on which every
one has had definite opinions. Those who
have written or spoken for or against it, have
been equally unmeasured in the phraseology
they employ. King James the First thun-
dered the first vOlley in his famous "Coun:
terblast to Tobacco" and was followed by
"VOlley from Parnassus," by an anonymous
writer, whose wrath seems to have outstrip-
ped his power of expression An undertone
of grumbling, in the shape Of epigrams oc-
casional pamphlets, sarcastic notes, ETC., is
sometimes discernible, to the curious in such
things, all through our literature, but these
grumblers are mostly Of the subterranean
order, mere croakers in the nethermost mud.
One renegade, however, We must notice.
man who ought to have known better
Charles Lamb. His .'Farewell to Tobacco"
is the expression Of the only piece Of in
gratitude that gentle nature was guilty Of
If ingratitude it was Catullus, we know,
always discovered when Lesbia was fondest
of him by the heartless way in which she
abused him. Perhaps the same paradoxical
sentiment was guiding the infatuated Lamb
when he penned the liue Filth O the mouth
and fog O. the mind"-a plagiarism, by the
way, from great smoker, who calls silence
Frost O. the mouth and thaw O the mind"
One of the greatest of modern poets, tole.
rant of everything beside, has the bad taste
to be intolerant on this one subject, and
hates pipe or cigar as he would besshamed
to hate anything or anybody else in the
world. But smokers can afford ia smile at
these black swans, as they glance over the
goodly list of those who have been guilty Of
the same weakness as themselves he great
DR.. Isaac Barrow called his pipe his Pan
pharmacon, or cure for everything. Bishop
Hall and DR.. Hooker were by no means
proof against quiet clay. We can see
Ben johnson and Drummond with the white
vapor wreathing itself around them, and are
by no means certain, that my Lord Bacon
did not know from experience the truth Of his
own words, "Tobacco comfortetb the spirits
and dschargeth WEAKNESS, which it worketh
partly by opening, but chiefly by the opiate
virtue which condenseth the spirits" Fletch-
er had many quiet pipe with Beaumont,
and Sir Thomas Overbury often soothed him
self in pause of his troubled life with that
"delectabls pastime." !"
Scholars and students of every kind have
been faithful votaries of the weed. Box
hore, the great Dutch scholar, was such a
slave to it, that he wore very broad-brim-
med hat, pierced hole through it, and so
supported his pipe while his hands were
free, and smoked unimpeded day and night.
Bently could never sufficiently thank Cum
berland for initiating him into the delight
full mystery of enjoying pipe, and only re-
grctted no had not only begun earlier to
learn it; he was over seventy when he had
his first lesson. Porsoh used to dogmatically
assert, that when smoking went out Of fash
ion, learning did so too, and old DR.. Parr
insisted on taking his pipe with him
wherever he went mo pipe, no Parr,"
was his snappish and ungallant speech to
lady who objected to the fnmigation Of her
drawing room. The only rest poor old
! Hobbies got in that stormy, contentious ex-
istcnce Of his, was when he could light his
pipe in comfort, and forget all about DR..
Eachard or Wallis Who cannot see, in i'm
agination, John Milton smoking his regular
evening pipe, and talking between whittis to
gentle Elwood or step over to the "Rose
and survey the author of "Hudibras,"
silent, absent, and reserved, with history
in every line Of that hard, coarse face, now
lit up with the fare of the live coal he has
put into the bowl of his pipe? Fielding
was great smoker, and many scene Oh
those harum.scarum comedies Of his were
dashed of on his tobacco paper. iillotsoh
was not little attached to his evening pipe,
aud Jeremy Taylsr medtated not few OF
els golden pages through the "wreaths OF a
curling mist which was born not OF the
meadows" Old Burton, the author o the
immortal ANATOMY of Melancholy" has a
curious passage on the divine plant. he
knows nA what TO conclude Of II: To-.