improbable, certainly not inapplicable:

"You (Sir) shall therein [in this history] behold, that _a
prince ought to be very carefull to conserve his authority
entire. Great ones_ [court favourites] _here may learne_, it is
not good to play with the generous {216} Lyon though he suffer
it, and that _favours are precipices for such as abuse them_."

Having referred to this work of Mathieu's, I shall feel obliged to any
of your correspondents who will favour me with a notice of it, or of the
author.

Balliolensis.

* * * * *

THE ANTIQUITY OF SMOKING.

I feel much interested in the Query of your correspondent Z.A.Z. (Vol.
ii., p. 41.) I had a "Query" something similar, with a "Note" on it,
lying by me for some time, which I send you as they stand.--Was not
smoking in use in England and other countries before the introduction of
tobacco? Whitaker says, a few days after the tower of Kirkstall Abbey
fell, 1779, he

"Discovered imbedded in the mortar of the fallen fragments
several little smoking pipes, such as were used in the reign of
James I. for tobacco; a proof of a fact _which has not been
recorded_, that, prior to the introduction of that plant from
America, the practice of inhaling the smoke of some indigenous