VIII. Shall I smoke Tobacco? Answer; Be sure Not, if I can help it. Or let Alsted answer for me. Maximus Tabaci Abusus est, quotidiano ejus usu, semetipsos, et bonas Horas perdere, et ex cerebro, mentis nobilissima sede, caminum et cloacam efficere. In the Duchy of Berguen, People may not Smoke, without purchasing a License for it. If you were to purchase of me a License for it, I know not how high Terms I should hold you to. If you want an Hydragogue, there is one preferable in chewing some such Thing as a bit of Mastic; which would also whiten your Teeth, and sweeten your Breath, which Tobacco poisons. If once you get into the way of Smoking, there will be extreme hazard, of your becoming a Slave to the Pipe; and ever Insatiably craving for it. People may think what they will; But such a Slavery, is much below the Dignity of a Rational Creature; and much more of a Gracious Christian. I am sure, what the Great Voetius writes upon it, is very true; Minime convenit viris honest is et gravibus; nominatim Ministris et Ministerii Candidatis. There can be no Apology for your taking up the slovenly Practice, and the Pains that must be taken to conquer the Poison, if you are not well advised and assured, That your Health requires it. But I shall only recite what you will find in Two very considerable Writers, that you may form the better Judgment upon it. The One of these Writers is Magnenus; who tho' he be a mighty Friend to the Use of Tobacco, yet acknowledges, That it is not easy to relate, what are the Damages, which the Inordinate and Immoderate Use of this Fume does bring with it; for besides the insatiable and ⟨p. 134⟩greedy Lust of taking it, by its daily Use, the Memory is impaired, the Stomach violated, the Brain exiccated, and the Life shortened; and the Offspring damnified. Yea, he lays this down as an undoubted Assertion; That the frequent and familiar Use of it, can be good for no Man. The Other is our Gale, who from his own Experience taxes the Smoke of Tobacco with very Noxious Qualities: He says, He found it made more Humours than it brought away; and tho' it opened his Body for the present, it proved in that very thing a Prejudice afterwards; and Nature was but the more Sluggish and Feeble anon, for the Force in this way put upon it. He says, At last I came under a fixed Resolution to deliver my self from this Vassalage;
VIII. Shall I smoke Tobacco? Answer; Be sure Not, if I can help it. Or let Alsted answer for me. Maximus Tabaci Abusus est, quotidiano ejus usu, semetipsos, et bonas Horas perdere, et ex cerebro, mentis nobilissima sede, caminum et cloacam efficere. In the Dutchy of Berguen, People may not Smoke, without purchasing a License for it. If you were to purchase of me a License for it, I know not how high Terms I should hold you to. If you want an Hydragogue, there is one preferrible in chewing some such Thing as a bit of Mastich; which would also whiten your Teeth, and sweeten your Breath, which Tobacco poisons. If once you get into the way of Smoking, there will be extreme hazard, of your becoming a Slave to the Pipe; and ever Insatiably craving for it. People may think what they will; But such a Slavery, is much below the Dignity of a Rational Creature; and much more of a Gracious Christian. I am sure, what the Great Voetius writes upon it, is very true; Minime convenit viris honest is et gravibus; nominatim Ministris et Ministerii Candidatis. There can be no Apology for your taking up the slovenly Practice, and the Pains that must be taken to conquer the Poison, if you are not well advised and assured, That your Health requires it. But I shall only recite what you will find in Two very considerable Writers, that you may form the better Judgment upon it. The One of these Writers is Magnenus; who tho' he be a mighty Friend to the Use of Tobacco, yet acknowledges, That it is not easy to relate, what are the Damages, which the Inordinate and Immoderate Use of this Fume does bring with it; for besides the insatiable and ⟨p. 134⟩greedy Lust of taking it, by its daily Use, the Memory is impaired, the Stomach violated, the Brain exiccated, and the Life shortened; and the Offspring damnified. Yea, he lays this down as an undoubted Assertion; That the frequent and familiar Use of it, can be good for no Man. The Other is our Gale, who from his own Experience taxes the Smoke of Tobacco with very Noxious Qualities: He says, He found it made more Humours than it brought away; and tho' it opened his Body for the present, it proved in that very thing a Prejudice afterwards; and Nature was but the more Sluggish and Feeble anon, for the Force in this way put upon it. He says, At last I came under a fixed Resolution to deliver my self from this Vassalage;
