bout the Elizabethan age as if to the beating of a drum. But why was
this period riper for magnificent deeds and noble literature than any
other in English history? We all know how the thinkers, historians, and
critics of yesterday and to-day answer that question; but our hearts and
brains tell us that they are astray. By an amazing oversight they have
said nothing of the Influence of Tobacco. The Elizabethan age might be
better named the beginning of the smoking era. No unprejudiced person
who has given thought to the subject can question the propriety of
dividing our history into two periods--the pre-smoking and the smoking.
When Raleigh, in honor of whom England should have changed its name,
introduced tobacco into this country, the glorious Elizabethan age
began. I am aware that those hateful persons called Original Researchers
now maintain that Raleigh was not the man; but to them I turn a deaf
ear. I know, I feel, that with the introduction of tobacco England woke
up from a long sleep. Suddenly a new zest had been given to life. The
glory of existence became a thing to speak of. Men who had hitherto only
concerned themselves with the narrow things of home put a pipe into
their mouths and became philosophers. Poets and dramatists smoked until
all ignoble ideas were driven from them, and into their place rushed
such high thoughts as the world had not known before. Petty jealousies
no longer had hold of statesmen, who smoked, and agreed to work together
for the public weal. Soldiers and sailors felt, when engaged with a
foreign foe, that they were fighting for their pipes. The whole country
was stirred by the ambition to live up to tobacco. Every one, in short,
had now a lofty ideal constantly before him. Two stories of the period,
never properly told hitherto, illustrate this. We all know that Gabriel
Harvey and Spenser lay in bed discussing English poetry and the forms
it ought to take. This was when tobacco was only known to a select few,
of whom Spenser, the friend of Raleigh, was doubtless one. That the
two friends smoked in bed I cannot doubt. Many poets have done the same
thing since. Then there is the beautiful Armada story. In a famous
Armada picture the English sailors are represented smoking; which makes
it all the more surprising that the story to which I refer has come
down to us in an incorrect form. According to the historians, when the
Armada hove in sight the English captains were playing at bowls. Inst