the
mantelpiece--and thou revilest tobacco!

_Montesinos_.--Distinguish, I pray you, gentle ghost! I condemn the
abuse of tobacco as filthy, implying in those words that it has its
allowable and proper use. To smoke, is, in certain circumstances, a
wholesome practice; it may be regarded with a moral complacency as the
poor man's luxury, and with liking by any one who follows a lighted pipe
in the open air. But whatever may be pleaded for its soothing and
intellectualising effects, the odour within doors of a defunct pipe is
such an abomination, that I join in anathematising it with James, the
best-natured of kings, and Joshua Sylvester, the most voluble of poets.

_Sir Thomas More_.--Thou hast written verses praise of snuff!

_Montesinos_.--And if thy nose, sir Spirit, were anything more than the
ghost of an olfactor, I would offer it a propitiatory pinch, that you
might the more feelingly understand the merit of the said verses, and
admire them accordingly. But I am no more to be deemed a snuff-taker
because I carry a snuff-box when travelling, and keep one at hand for
occasional use, than I am to be reckoned a casuist or a pupil of the
Jesuits because the "Moral Philosophy" of Escobar and the "Spiritual
Exercises" of St. Ignatius Loyola are on my shelves. Thank Heaven, I
bear about with me no habits which I cannot lay aside as easily as my
clothes.

The age is past in which travellers could add much to the improvement,
the comfort, or the embellishment of this country by imparting anything
which they have newly observed in foreign parts. We have happily more to
communicate now than to receive. Yet when I tell you that since the
commencement of the present century there have been every year, upon an
average, more than a hundred and fifty plants which were previously
unknown here introduced into the nurseries and market-gardens about
London, you will acknowledge that in this branch at least, a constant
desire is shown of enriching ourselves with the produce of other hands.

_Sir Thomas More_.--Philosophers of old travelled to observe the manners
of men and study their institutions. I know not whether they found more
pleasure in the study, or derived more advantages from it, than the
adventurers reap who, in these latter times, have crossed the seas and
exposed themselves to dangers of every kind, for the purpose of extending
the catalogue of plants.

_Montesinos_.--Of all travels, those of the mere botanis