odorous incense of Latakia to play round his beard, the women of the
harem do not disturb his meditations, but only add to the delight of
them by tinkling on a dulcimer and dancing before him. When Professor
Strumpff of Gottingen takes down No. 13 from the wall, with a picture
of Beatrice Cenci upon it, and which holds a pound of canaster, the Frau
Professorin knows that for two hours Hermann is engaged, and takes up
her stockings and knits in quiet. The constitution of French society
has been quite changed within the last twelve years: an ancient and
respectable dynasty has been overthrown; an aristocracy which Napoleon
could never master has disappeared: and from what cause? I do not
hesitate to say,--FROM THE HABIT OF SMOKING. Ask any man whether, five
years before the revolution of July, if you wanted a cigar at Paris,
they did not bring you a roll of tobacco with a straw in it! Now, the
whole city smokes; society is changed; and be sure of this, ladies,
a similar combat is going on in this country at present between
cigar-smoking and you. Do you suppose you will conquer? Look over the
wide world, and see that your adversary has overcome it. Germany has
been puffing for threescore years; France smokes to a man. Do you think
you can keep the enemy out of England? Psha! look at his progress. Ask
the clubhouses, Have they smoking-rooms or not? Are they not obliged to
yield to the general want of the age, in spite of the resistance of the
old women on the committees? I, for my part, do not despair to see a
bishop lolling out of the "Athenaeum" with a cheroot in his mouth, or,
at any rate, a pipe stuck in his shovel-hat.

But as in all great causes and in promulgating new and illustrious
theories, their first propounders and exponents are generally the
victims of their enthusiasm, of course the first preachers of smoking
have been martyrs, too; and George Fitz-Boodle is one. The first gas-man
was ruined; the inventor of steam-engine printing became a pauper. I