e box of a Chinese priest, or a priest from
China, called Pere Couplet (don't print it Quatrain), in 1667. He
gave it to the Earl of Clarendon, and I extend it to you, if you
wish to try it.

John Milton knew the delights of tea. He drank coffee during
the composition of "Paradise Lost," and tea during the building
of "Paradise Regained."

Like all good things, animate and inanimate, tea did not become
popular without a struggle. It, like the gradual oak, met with
many kinds of opposition, from the timid, the prejudiced, and
the selfish. All sorts of herbs were put upon the market to offset
its popularity; such as onions, sage, marjoram, the Arctic
bramble, the sloe, goat-weed, Mexican goosefoot, speedwell,
wild geranium, veronica, wormwood, juniper, saffron, carduus
benedictus, trefoil, wood-sorrel, pepper, mace, scurry grass,
plantain, and betony.

Sir Hans Sloane invented herb tea, and Captain Cook's companion,
Dr. Solander, invented another tea, but it was no use--tea had
come to stay, and a blessing it has been to the world, when
moderately used. You don't want to become a tea drunkard,
like Dr. Johnson, nor a coffee fiend, like Balzac. Be moderate
in all things, and you are bound to be happy and live long.
Moderation in eating, drinking, loving, hating, smoking,
talking, acting, fighting, sleeping, walking, lending, borrowing,
reading newspapers--in expressing opinions--even in bathing
and praying--means long life and happiness.

_WIT, WISDOM, AND HUMOR OF TEA_

Tea tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels
lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents
drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears the
perceptive faculties.--CONFUCIUS.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?--how
did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.--SYDNEY
SMITH.

"Sammy," whispered Mr. Weller, "if some o' these here people
don't want tappin' to-morrow mornin', I ain't your father, and
that's wot it is. Why this here old lady next me is a drown-in'
herself in tea."

"Be quiet, can't you?" murmured Sam.

"Sam," whispered Mr. Weller, a moment afterward, in a tone of
deep agitation, "mark my words, my boy; if that 'ere secretary
feller keeps on for five minutes more, he'll blow himself up with
toast and water."

"Well, let him if he likes," replied Sam; "it ain't no bis'ness of
yourn."

"If this here lasts much longer, Sammy," said Mr. Weller, in the
same low vo