be able to resist the influence of extraneous causes, to a much
greater extent than that of the voluptuary.

Let now the blacksmith use tobacco, and although there may be no
perceptible diminution of vigor, (since you have no perfect standard to
try it by,) because he still exceeds in strength persons possessing
constitutions naturally less vigorous, or constitutions less hardened by
toil; yet, whether the same hardy son of Vulcan can endure more
hardship, while using tobacco, than he could have done had he never used
the baneful plant, is the question?

That many persons apparently enjoy good health, and yet use tobacco,
cannot be denied. And the same may be affirmed with equal propriety of
opium and alcohol. I once knew a man who, from his youth till he had
reached his sixty-ninth year, became intoxicated, whenever he could
procure sufficient liquor to produce this effect; and during that time
he was never so ill as to require medical advice. I have known others to
be literally steeped in ardent spirit, who were seldom sick; and yet
few, I apprehend, will affirm, that alcohol used to such excess is not
injurious.

The Turks, who, for aught to the contrary that appears in their history,
enjoy as good health as the people of the United States, and are said to
attain a longevity as great, use opium for the purpose of intoxication,
much in the same manner in which the latter employ alcohol and wine,
these being forbidden to the former by their creed. Yet, after all, the
man who could adduce these facts to prove the harmlessness of the
substances under consideration, must be destitute of that physiological
knowledge which is necessary to understand the natural operations of the
human system.

There is a principle in the animal economy, which powerfully resists
morbid impressions, and tends to expel whatever is noxious. This
principle, called by some "the medical power of nature," is roused to
action by the application of an offending agent to any part of the human
system. On the first intimation of the assault, this vigilant sentinel
rallies her forces, and flies to the point of attack.

If she succeed in expelling the invader before any serious mischief has
been done, the system again reposes in quiet; but if not, a more general
tumult arises, and the assistance of art is often required to second her
ineffectual efforts. These phenomena are exhibited in the first use of
tobacco, in all its forms.

Apply snuff to t