M. JULES CLARETIE,
PARIS.


I should have been glad to reply to your question from my personal
experience, but I do not smoke, and have never in all my life drunk as
much as a single glass of alcohol. This plainly shows that I require
no "fillip" or stimulant when at work. Tobacco and alcohol may cause
over-excitement of the brain, as does coffee, which I am very fond of;
but, in my opinion, that alone is thorough good work which is
performed without artificial stimulant, and in full possession of
one's health and faculties. The reason we have so many sickly
productions in our literature arises probably from the fact that our
writers, perhaps, add a little alcohol to their ink, and view life
through the fumes of nicotine.

M. JULES CLARETIE.
Feb. 26, 1882.




MR. HYDE CLARKE, F. S. S.


As I am not an adherent of the teetotal abstinence movement, I beg
that everything I write may be accepted with this reservation. I have