h, confined within the narrow circle of a few
sensations, renders us incapable of entering into the most
delicate pleasures of that sense.

"Snuff procures us the rapture of a tactile irritation, of a
slight perfume; but, above all, it furnishes the charm of an
intermittent occupation which soothes us by interrupting,
from time to time, our labor. At other times it renders
idleness less insupportable to us, by breaking it into the
infinite intervals which pass from one pinch of snuff to
another. Sometimes our snuff-box arouses us from torpor and
drowsiness; sometimes, it occupies our hands when in society
we do not know where to put them or what to do with them.
Finally, snuff and snuffing are things which we can love,
because they are always with us; and we can season them with
a little vanity if we possess a snuff-box of silver or of
gold, which we open continually before those who humbly
content themselves with snuff-boxes of bone or of wood. We
gladly concede the pleasures of snuffing to men of all
conditions, and to ladies who, having passed a certain age,
or who, being deformed, have no longer any sex; but we
solemnly and resolutely refuse the snuff-box to young and
beautiful women, who ought to preserve their delicate and
pretty noses for the odors of the mignonette and the rose."

With royalty snuff has been a prime favorite. Charles III. of Spain
had a great predilection for rappee snuff, but only indulged his
inclination by stealth, and particularly while shooting, when he
imagined himself to be unnoticed. Frederick the Great and Napoleon[61]
both loved and used large quantities of the "pungent dust." Of the
former the following anecdote is related:--

[Footnote 61: Napoleon, having been unable to undergo
the ordeal of a first pipe, stigmatized it us a habit
only fit to amuse sluggards. What he renounced in
smoking, however, he compensated in snuff.]

"The cynical temper of Frederick the Great is well known.
Once when his sister, the Duchess of Brunswick, was at
Potsdam, Frederick made to the brave Count Schwerin the
present of a gold snuff-box. On the lid inside was painted
the head of an ass. Next day, when dining with the king,
Schwerin, with some ostentation, put his snuff-box on the
table. Wishing to t