of Tobacco. But now if it were time of wars, and that you were to make some sudden Cavalcado upon your enemies, if any of you should seek leisure to stay behind his fellow for taking of Tobacco, for my part I should never be sorry for any evil chance that might befall him. To take a custom in anything that cannot be left again, is most harmful to the people of any land. Mollicies and delicacy were the wrack and overthrow, first of the Persian, and next of the Roman Empire. And this very custom of taking Tobacco (whereof our present purpose is) is even at this day accounted so effeminate among the Indians themselves, as in the market they will offer no price for a slave to be sold, whom they find to be a great Tobacco taker.

Now how you are by this custom disabled in your goods, let the Gentry of this land bear witness, some of them bestowing three, some four hundred pounds a year upon this precious stink, which I am sure might be bestowed upon many far better uses. I read indeed of a knavish Courtier, who for abusing the favor of the Emperor Alexander Severus his Master by taking bribes to intercede, for sundry persons in his Master's ear (for whom he never once opened his mouth), was justly choked with smoke, with this doom, Fumo pereat, qui fumum vendidit: but of so many smoke buyers, as are at this present in this kingdom, I never read nor heard.

And for the vanities committed in this filthy custom, is it not both great vanity and uncleanness, that at the table, a place of respect, of cleanliness, of modesty, men should not be ashamed, to sit tossing of Tobacco pipes, and puffing of the smoke of Tobacco one to another, making the filthy smoke and stink thereof to exhale athwart the dishes, and infect the air, when very often, men that abhor it are at their repast? Surely Smoke becomes a kitchen far better than a Dining chamber, and yet it makes a kitchen also oftentimes in the inward parts of men, soiling and infecting them, with an unctuous and oily kind of Soot, as hath been found in some great Tobacco takers, that after their death were opened. And not only meat time, but no other time nor action is exempted from the public use of this uncivil trick: so as if the wives of Dieppe list to contest with this Nation for good manners, their worst manners would in all reason be found at least not so dishonest (as ours are) in this point. The public use whereof, at all times, and in all places, hath now so far prevailed, as divers men very sound both in judgment and complexion, have been at last forced to

take it also without desire, partly because they were ashamed to seem singular (like the two Philosophers that were forced to duck themselves in that rain water, and so become fools as well as the rest of the people) and partly, to be as one that was content to eat Garlic (which he did not love) that he might not be troubled with the smell of it, in the breath of his fellows. And is it not a great vanity, that a man cannot heartily welcome his friend now, but straight they must be in hand with Tobacco? No it is become in place of a cure, a point of good fellowship, and he that will refuse to take a pipe of Tobacco among his fellows, (though by his own election he would rather feel the savor of a Sink,) is accounted peevish and no good company, even as they do with tippling in the cold Eastern Countries. Yea the Mistress cannot in a more mannerly kind entertain her servant, than by giving him out of her fair hand a pipe of Tobacco. But herein is not only a great vanity, but a great contempt of God's good gifts, that the sweetness of man's breath, being a good gift of God, should be willfully corrupted by this stinking smoke, wherein I must confess, it hath too strong a virtue and so that which is an ornament of nature, and can neither by any artifice be at the first acquired, nor once lost, be recovered again, shall be filthily corrupted with an incurable stink, which vile quality is as directly contrary to that wrong opinion which is holden of the wholesomeness thereof, as the venom of putrefaction is contrary to the virtue Preservative.

Moreover, which is a great iniquity, and against all humanity, the husband shall not be ashamed to reduce thereby his delicate, wholesome, and clean complexioned wife, to that extremity, that either she must also corrupt her sweet breath therewith, or else resolve to live in a perpetual stinking torment.

Have you not reason then to be ashamed, and to forbear this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof? In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming yourselves both in persons and goods, and raking also thereby the marks and notes of vanity upon you: by the custom thereof making yourselves to be wondered at by all foreign civil Nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and contemned. A custom loathsome to the Eye, hateful to the Nose, harmful to the Brain, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.

THE TRICKS OF GUZMAN D'ALFARACHE.

BY MATEO ALEMAN.

[MATEO ALEMAN, except Cervantes and Mendoza the most original and charming of Spanish novelists, was born at Seville about the middle of the sixteenth century, and became controller of finances to Philip II.; but disliking official life, emigrated to Mexico and died there about 1610. He wrote a Castilian grammar, a life of St. Anthony of Padua, and a Latin dialogue “Prometheus"; but his chief work is the imperishable "Life and Acts of the Picaro Guzman d'Alfarache," which has been translated into all European tongues and furnished types and matter to "Gil Blas."

BEHOLD me favorite page to his eminence [the cardinal], an enormous step in life for me; though from that of rogue to private domestic, with the exception of the livery, there is not so great a distance as might be supposed. But to turn me from habits of idleness, and living by my wits, was something like trying to make a fish live out of water, for such was my element. The tavern was my province, the primum mobile,—the center on which I moved. But here everything seemed to go by clockwork; order and sobriety were general rules; and I was either employed in showing people up and down stairs, or placed sentinel in an anteroom, standing like a long-necked heron in a fish-pond, upon one melancholy leg. In short, I was at everybody's beck and call; sometimes behind my master's chair, at others behind his carriage; and always expected to be in twenty different places at once, without any respite from the first of January to the last day of December. "Wretched slave that I am,” I exclaimed, "what boots it to put up with this unhappy life from week to week, and year to year. Alas! it will kill me, I must fly for it; once I was lackey to all the world, and now my genius pines under a single master. I wear his livery; and what are my perquisites but candles' ends! Here, too, I run risk; unhappy Guzman! should I be detected, assuredly I should not escape under fifty lashes!" And in this way I went on bemoaning my unfortunate condition.

Besides the candles' ends, we used occasionally to help ourselves to any of the delicacies of the season; but this required more address than many of my companions could lay claim to; and one day I remember there occurred a disagreeable affair in consequence. A fool of a waiter, happening to be fond of sweets, laid hands upon some fine honeycomb, which he thought he had cunningly hidden in his pocket handkerchief. The weather

was excessively hot; and the honey was soon running down the white stockings of the thief. As his fate would have it, the cardinal's eye came in contact with the phenomenon, and, suspecting what was the case, he burst into a violent fit of laughing. "See, my good fellow," he cried, "the blood is running down your leg; you have wounded yourself-what is it?" At this inquiry the attention of the whole company was directed the same way; his fellow-servants stared; and the wretched culprit stood before them with all the evidence of detected guilt glowing in his face. Yet too happy had he got rid of the affair with this exposure, for he paid far more dear for his whistle, so as to make it the bitterest honey he ever tasted.

The greater part of his companions were as little experienced in the light-fingered art as himself, while I, agreeably to my old custom, undertook to instruct them, by laying my hands on everything belonging to them that came in my way. His eminence, in an adjoining cabinet, kept a large box of dried sweets, confectionery, and fruit of all kinds, to which he was extremely partial. Among other articles, he had a choice store of Bergamot pears, Genoese plums, Granada melons, Seville lemons, oranges from Placentia, lemons from Murcia, cucumbers from Valencia, love-apples from Toledo, peaches from Aragon, and raisins from Malaga; indeed, everything most exquisite and alluring were to be found in this fragrant chest. My mouth watered every time I went near it; and much more when the cardinal ordered me to take the key and bring him a dish, after he had dined. But I longed in vain, for as if suspecting my object, his eminence took care to be present while I opened the precious deposit; - a want of confidence which sounded to me like a challenge of skill, and made me resolve if possible to outwit him, and taste "the forbidden fruit" in spite of him. I now thought of nothing but how to accomplish my favorite scheme. The box was an ell and a half broad, two and a half long, and had a good lock in the middle. Yet to work I went; and first I took a flat stick, which I introduced in a corner of the chest, and used as a lever. After this, I took more of the same kind, so as gradually to raise the top till I could introduce my small hand, and filch what came nearest to me; but lest this should appear, I got a little hook to draw the fruit from the other side, so as to make an even surface. By this plan I became master of this sweet little storehouse, without keeping a key.

Unluckily, however, I made such frequent applications to the same treasury that the deficiency became apparent. The cardinal saw enough to make him think-the dilapidations were terrible and one day, taking a fancy to a beautiful lemon which he remarked the evening before, it was found to be no longer in esse. Greatly astonished, the dignitary called his chief attendants: he wished to know who of them all had the impertinence to open his sweet-box without his permission. He charged his major-domo, a priest of a severe, forbidding countenance, to make minute inquiry, and let him know the author of so bold and wicked an attack. The surly priest fixed his eye upon the pages: he commanded us all to instantly appear in the great hall, and to undergo a strict search; but examinations and threats were alike useless - he was just as wise as before-the fruit was already eaten. The affair blew over; nothing more was said, but his eminence had not forgotten it. On my side, too, I was on my guard for three days I did not so much as look at the box, though I felt such forbearance extremely painful to me. I was only reserving my ingenuity for an occasion of indulging it with a greater degree of impunity. It presented itself, I thought, one day after dinner, when my master was engaged in play with some other dignitaries. While thus occupied, I concluded I should have full leisure to return to the charge. I glided, with my genius all on the alert, into the secret cabinet; no one had seen me; I was already in the act of drawing forth some precious specimens, when I heard a foot approaching quickly; in my hurry to get my hand out, one of my levers gave way, the lid closed, and I remained fairly caught, like a rat in a trap; when, on looking round, I beheld the cardinal at the door, with an expression of malicious triumph in his countenance. "Ah, ah, my friend Guzman," he exclaimed, "it is you, is it, to whom I am indebted for the loss of my sweetest fruit?" I could not reply; but the horrible grimaces I made, and my excessive vexation at being thus surprised, gave me so ludicrous an appearance, that his eminence could not avoid laughing. He then called his visitors to enjoy the sight, pointing me out as the little delinquent he had long been in search of; and the whole of them appeared to be infinitely amused at my expense, the cardinal declaring that as it would be long ere I appeared in a similar situation, he must make the best of a bad example. He next called his steward, the man with the