se all the mental operations, than
by thus entailing upon ourselves the whole hateful train of nervous
maladies. These can bow down to the earth an intellect of giant
strength, and make it grind in bondage, like Sampson shorn of his locks
and deprived of his vision. The use of tobacco may seem to soothe the
feelings, and quicken the operations of the mind; but to what purpose is
it that the machine is furiously running and buzzing after the balance
wheel is taken off?"

The late Gov. Sullivan, speaking of the use of tobacco, says, "It has
never failed to render me dull and heavy, to interrupt my usual
alertness of thought, and to weaken the powers of my mind in analyzing
subjects and defining ideas."

The actual loss of _intellectual_ power, which tobacco has hitherto
occasioned, and is still causing, in this Christian nation, is immense.
How immense, it is impossible accurately to calculate. Many a man who
might have been a giant, has not risen above mediocrity; and many a man
who might have been respectable and useful, has sunk into obscurity, and
buried his talents in the earth. This is a consideration of deepest
interest to every philanthropist, patriot, and Christian in the land,
and especially to all our youth. We live at a time, and under
circumstances, which call for the exertion of all our intellectual
strength, cultivated, improved and sanctified, to the highest measure of
possibility. Error, ignorance, and sin, must be met and vanquished; they
must be met and vanquished by light and love. The eye of angels is upon
us,--the eye of God is upon us,--and shall we fetter, and palsy, and
ruin our intellectual capabilities, for the paltry pleasure of using one
of the most poisonous, loathsome, and destructive weeds found in the
whole vegetable kingdom? Let us rather shake off this abominable
practice, and rise, as individuals and as a nation, in all our
intellectual potency,--and let us go forth from day to day, to the noble
purposes of our destiny, untrammelled by the quid, or the pipe, or the
snuff-box; and before another generation shall lie down in the grave,
our efforts and our example may cause the light of human science, and
the light of civil and religious liberty, and the light of Bible truth,
to blaze through all our valleys, and over all our hills, from
Greenland to Cape Horn,--and with a lustre that shall illumine the
world.

I maintain my position,

IV. From a consideration of the ruinous effects o