Fuma, passagia e medita
E diverrai poeta.

(Smoke, ramble alone and think, and thou will soon become a poet.)

That is what he himself does, but my belief is that owing to the abuse
of cigars, he so frequently raves (dotes) and his poetry is often
cloudy.

As for alcohol, I take it to be proved beyond all doubt, that when
taken in very small quantities it may, in certain cases, do good, but
that taken in large quantities it kills. After having burnt the
stomach, it deprives it of its power of digestion. I have seen a great
many persons begin to use alcoholic beverages in the hope of acquiring
tone, and afterwards get so accustomed to their use, that the best
Chianti wine passed into their stomach like water. In this case, as in
so many other cases, it is a question of measure. Alcohol has a like
injurious effect upon the brain as upon the stomach.

I am by no means an authority on the question which you have been good
enough to address to me, and can therefore only give you briefly a
statement of my own personal experience. Speaking of stimulants, I
would mention, for instance, the strange effect produced upon my
rather sensitive organism by a single cup of coffee. If I take a cup
of coffee at six o'clock in the evening I cannot get to sleep before
six in the morning. If I take it at noon I can get to sleep at
midnight I know that many people take coffee to keep awake when
working through the night. My own opinion is that you cannot work any
better with these stimulants. There is a sort of irritation produced