"first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our wo,
With loss of Eden."

While the myriads of sentient beings, spread over the earth, adhere,
with unyielding fidelity, to the laws of their several existences,
man exerts his superior intellect in attempting to outwit nature,
and to show that she has made an important mistake, in his own case.
Not satisfied with the symmetry and elegance of form given him by his
Creator, he transforms himself into a hideous monster, or copies upon
his own person, the proportions of some disgusting creature, far down
in the scale of animal being. Not content with loving one thing and
loathing another, he perseveres in his attempts to make bitter sweet,
and sweet bitter, till nothing but the shadow is left, of his primitive
relishes and aversions. This is strikingly exemplified in the habitual
use of the narcotic or poisonous vegetables.

_History._

Tobacco is generally regarded as having originated in America. Its name
appears to have been derived from _Tabaco_, a province of _Yucatan_, in
Mexico, from which place it is said to have been first sent to Spain;
or, as some assert, though with less probability, from an instrument
named _Tabaco_, employed in Hispaniola in smoking this article.

Cortez sent a specimen of it to the king of Spain in 1519. Sir Francis
Drake is said to have introduced it into England about the year 1560,
and, not far front the same time, John Nicot carried it to France; and
Italy is indebted to the Cardinal Santa Croce for its first appearance
in that country.

Traces of an ancient custom of smoking dried herbs having been observed,
it has been suggested that tobacco might have been in use in Asia, long
before the discovery of America. The fact, however, that this plant
retains, under slight modifications, the name of tobacco, in a large
number of Asiatic as well as European dialects, renders almost certain
the commonly received opinion, that it emanated from this country, and
from this single origin has found its way into every region of the
earth, where it is at present known. If this be the fact, the Western
hemisphere has relieved itself of a part of the obligation due to the
Eastern, for the discovery and diffusion of distilled spirit.

Early in the history of our country, the cultivation and use of
tobacco were by no means confined