oking and drinking are simply forms of
self-indulgence, and though they are doubtless very excusable and are
often practised by splendid men, they are of no virtue in themselves.
Further, they are open to the fundamental objection that they lessen the
measure of a man's self-mastery. Women should set a high standard in
such matters as these.

To take the case of smoking, very few smokers realize, in the first
place, how much money they expend. It is money which, if not spent,
would appreciably contribute to the cost of house-keeping in not a few
cases. Many a man who says he cannot afford to marry spends on tobacco
and alcohol a sum quite sufficient to turn the scale. It will be argued
that the smoking brings rest and peace, that it soothes, aids digestion,
and so forth. But the non-smoker is not in need of these assistances:
it is only the smoker who requires to smoke for these purposes. On this
point I have said, in the volume of personal hygiene which this present
work is meant to succeed, all that really requires to be said. It was
there pointed out that nicotine doubtless produces secondary products in
the blood which require a further dose of the nicotine as an antidote to
them. Thus there is initiated a vicious circle, the details of which
have been fully worked out in the case of opium, or rather, morphia. All
the good results which are obtained from smoking are essentially of the
nature of neutralizing the secondary effects of previous smoking. Here,
then, is the scientific argument for the girl's hand if she proposes to
deal with her lover on this point.

It may be added that the writer can now quote personal experience in
favour of his advice. He smoked incessantly for fourteen years--from
seventeen to thirty-one--his quantum being five ounces in all per
week--of the strongest Egyptian cigarettes and the strongest pipe
tobacco procurable. The practice did him no observable harm whatever.
When he wrote the paragraph on "How to control one's smoking," in the
book referred to, he was only wishing that he could control his own. At
last he got disgusted with himself and stopped altogether. Personally he
is neither better nor worse, but he is buying books in proportion to the
money formerly wasted on tobacco, and perhaps the change is worth while.
The girl who reads this book may tell her lover with confidence that it
is quite possible to stop smoking, and that after a little while the
craving wholly disappears. I