dicament. Like tea--which a
hundred years later was advertised as a cure for every
ill--the new sneezing powder was hailed a universal
specific; and so pleasant in its operation, that mankind,
acting upon the wholesome aphorism that prevention is much
better than cure, and eagerly anticipated the disease it was
supposed to remedy."

"The use of 'the pungent grains of titillating dust'
received a somewhat heavy and discouraging blow from an
unexpected quarter. That ubiquitous power which hurled
anathemas alike at the heresies of Luther and the length of
clerical wigs, discountenanced its use, and at length fairly
lost its temper in the contest with snuff. Whether from a
prescience of the beneficial influence it was destined to
exert upon mankind, or from a suspicion of its power of
sharpening intellects, it is difficult to say; but Popes
Urban VIII., and Innocent waged quite a miniature crusade
against snuff, anathematizing those who should use it in
any church, and positively threatening with excommunication
all impious persons who should provoke a profane sneeze
within the sacred precincts of St. Peter's pile; Louis XIV.,
that good son of the Church, filially complied with the
paternal injunction, but his courtiers were less yielding;
and the ante-chamber of Versailles frequently resounded with
the effects of the pleasant stimulant.

"All persecution has a distinct tendency to establish the
object of its hate, and so it was with the subject of our
article--it only required to be loved; and I do not doubt
that, had circumstances required them, snuff would have
found its martyrs. Its use was not general in England until
Charles II. introduced it, upon his return from exile, with
other important fashions. It had been known and used before,
as had the periwig, but it was not until his reign that it
became common. When the Stuarts relieved the country of
their presence for the second and last time, it had become
firmly established; and, by the days of good Queen Anne, was
such a necessary of life, that there were in the metropolis
alone no less than seven thousand shops where the
snuff-boxes of the Londoners could be replenished.

"At that time, indeed, gallants were as proud of their
jewelled boxes of amber, porcelain, e