goad the brain, and force it to a greater consumption of its
substance, until the substance has been so exhausted that there is not
power enough left to receive a supply, just as men are so near death
by thirst and starvation that there is not power enough left to
swallow anything, and is over.--_Scientific American_.] Spirits I
have never drunk; Though I have been a smoker for many years, I cannot
say anything as to its effects.

MARK PATTISON.
March 16, 1882.




MR. JAMES PAYN.


In common with nine-tenths of my literary brethren, I am a constant
smoker. I smoke the whole time I am engaged in composition (three
hours _per diem_), and after meals; but very light tobacco--
_latakia_. [Footnote: Latakia, or Turkish, are called mild
tobaccos, and although they produce dryness of the tongue, from the
ammonia evolved in their smoke, they do not upset the digestion so
materially, nor nauseate so much as the stronger tobaccos, unless they
are indiscriminately used.--DR. B. W. RICHARDSON. ("_Diseases of
Modern Life_")] That it stimulates the imagination, I have little
doubt; and as I have worked longer and more continuously for thirty
years than any other author (save one); I cannot believe that tobacco
has done me any harm. Those who object to it have never tried it, or
find it disagrees with them. How can they, therefore, be in a position