ts? Dr. Rush
says, "I suspect tobacco is oftener used for the _want_ of ideas, than
to excite them." There are some whose apology for using tobacco is, that
it guards them against the power of contagious diseases. But Dr. Rees
affirms that tobacco does not contain an antidote against contagion, and
that, in general, it has no antiseptic power; and is therefore of no
special use. There is another class still, who use tobacco because it
soothes the irksomeness of life. They fear solitude; and to prevent
self-examination, and to while away their probation time, they fly to
the _pipe_, _quid_, and _snuff-box_; and soon, by an easy transition, to
the wine-glass and brandy-bottle.

These are the _usual apologies_ of the devotees to tobacco. And what do
they amount to? In truth, the common opinion that tobacco is good for
the head-ache,--weak eyes,--cold and watery stomachs,--the preservation
of the teeth,--and the like, is sheer delusion. Let every man and woman,
who would live long, and usefully, and happily, awake from this
delusion; and let no one, as he values health, life, and salvation,
_taste_, _touch_, or _handle_, the filthy poison.

I maintain my position,

VIII, AND LASTLY.--From a consideration of the _eternal ruin_ which
tobacco occasions. On this point, a word or two only, will suffice. That
tobacco carries many a soul down to the pit of eternal woe, is manifest
from its connection with drunkenness, and from its inducing disease and
death. Every man who dies a drunkard, and every man who, knowingly and
recklessly, brings upon himself disease and death through the influence
of tobacco, is a _suicide_. And drunkards and suicides cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. How many will at last, ascribe their eternal ruin to
alcohol and tobacco, cannot now be told.

That it will be a great multitude, (perhaps a great multitude which no
man can number,) we have no reason to doubt.

What then, I ask, _ought_ to be _done_? What _can_ be done? What _must_
be done? If this poisonous narcotic be of _recent_ origin; if it be
ruinous to the _health_ and _constitution_, and _intellect_, and
_public_ and _private morals_; if it occasions an amazing _waste of
property_,--and a multitude of _deaths_,--and _eternal ruin_ to many
precious souls; and if it do no good,--and there be no _apology_ for
using it, which will bear examination; then _something ought to be
done_, and it ought to be done _immediately_. And, _only one_ thing ne