1 194
2 IV.
3 In Canton Valois, I have read or heard,
4 Exists a prohibition of its use in Youth ;
5 A man must wait until he gets a beard
6 Before he smokes. And ’tis a well-known truth
7 That James the First, of England (“the absurd”)
8 Tried force, to put Tobacco down ; forsooth,
9 A silly trick, in that pedantic king ;
10 As Englishmen, by force, will not do anything.
11 v.
12 Sultan Amurad the Fourth, to death condemned
13 All smokers of Tobacco. And that great man
14 Baba Nanuk, whose conduct I commend,
15 »
16 By a religious obligation, formed a plan
17 To keep it from the Sikhs ; he did forefend
18 That poisonous weed, and through the nation ran
19 His interdiction ; e’en as a remedy for pain,
20 All efforts to administer the weed, prove vain.
21 VI.
22 The so-called barbarous Sikh, preserves his race
23 Against the noxious plant ; while boasting Europe tries
24 To increase its filthy use ; Governments have the face.
25 In spite of health, to form monopolies
26 Of this most baneful weed — What a disgrace !
27 E’en England’s Rulers common-sense defies,
28 Bartering (by Acts of Parliament) the health
29 Of a whole people, for a little wealth !
30 VII.
31 Able physicians often have asserted,
32 By snuffing up Tobacco, also smoking ,
33 The plant is from its true use much perverted.
34 In the fair-sex it ever is provoking
35 Sensations of disgust — in short, it is diverted
36 From Nature’s purpose ! and I end, invoking
37 The Genius of the British Isles, to banish hence
38 Customs so contrary to Common-sense !
39 J. M. H.