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A20030
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A defence of tabacco vvith a friendly answer to the late printed booke called Worke for chimny-sweepers, &c.
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Marbecke, Roger, 1536-1605.
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1602
(1602)
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STC 6468; ESTC S109505
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41,491
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72
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good men of life and couersation blamelesse in the â—ight of the world But for that this question appertaineth not vnto this place neither yet commeth within the compasse of your handling or mine I leaue it to our reuerend Diuines to whom it belongeth to decide such matters Hoping for all that it shall not seeme to be repugnant to the rules of Christianity to iudge the best euen of those Infidels and to thinke that as God is omnipotent and wonderfull in all his doings so by that his omnipotency ioyned with his infinite mercies he hath also many wayes and meanes though to vs and our weakenesse vnknowne how to raise vp plant and preserue some numbers amongst them of such as shall be accounted and reckened among the fellowship of those his true seruants that shall be saued And if this opinion of mine shall be thought awry and erronious yet I hope it shall be taken and accounted as pius error and so I leaue for this matter submitting my selfe to the censure and iudgement of them to whom it doth appertaine But let vs imagine the worst be it that they be the diuels seruants and that the vse of this Tabacco came wholly from them shall it therefore be thought either impious or inconuenient or vnlawfull for Christians to vse it For my part I am not of that mind For I thinke that religion forbids it not and I am sure honest pollicy doth not prohibite it Touching religion Omnia munda muÌ„dis Take me yet here I pray you as I meane it that is as spoken and meant of such matters as are not otherwise precisely ordered ouerruled by Scripture but are counted indifferent stand only vpoÌ„ their right vse or abuse to be either good or bad and haue no expresse rule example or commandement to the contrarie As for honest pollicie I referre you ouer to the daily practise of all good Christian Princes Imagine those Indians be as ill as ill may be yet I know that the Turks are as ill as they who are the professed enemies of Christ and of his sacred Gospell and yet I am sure there are many things both inuented and deuised by them or else by as ill as they and also that are daily vsed by them which are held in great price and estimation with all Christians at this day and by all Christian Princes put in practise euery where Wherefore in condemning Tabacco and the Tabacconists so eagerly in this point as you do in my opinion you do in a maner condemne all Christendome for some one thing or other vsed by them which was either inâ—ented at the first or else is now daily vsed by the Infidels The eighth and last reason is for that It is a great augmentor of Melancholy in our bodies which humor is the cause of many great diseases and hurtfull impressions in our bodies c. In this chapter there be many things very well and learnedly put downe As the nature and description of Melancholy The difference betweene the naturall melancholy and that melancholy which commeth by adustion and accidentally the straunge effects and properties that it breedeth and bringeth foorth in our bodies the helpe and vertue that it hath in it to make men wise and how that proposition which auoucheth melancholy men to be the wisest men is rightly to be vnderstood c. All these things haue very good matter in them I confesse And though some of them by some men both are and may be contradicted by the way of argument and schollerly disputation yet for my part I mind not to gaine-say any one of them for it were nothing to the purpose for that matter which we haue now in hand But when all is said that you can say and when all those odde ends are brought together of those matters which you haue laid downe and scattered in your discourse the vpshot of all your talke in this matter is and must be this that Tabacco increaseth melancholy humor in our bodie and increaseth it so abundantly that it manifestly destroyeth the temperature of our bodie disordering and ouerthrowing the good actions of the same and so consequently is a breeder and an occasion of many diseases in melancholie persons especially And this is the marke I am sure that you shoot at Wel sir then to leaue your long discourse and to come to handie gripes and to make short with you then thus I say if Tabacco do these things which you affirme it doth that is if it increase the humour of melancholie and breed blacke vapours in our bodie as you do say it doth then suâ—ely sir it must needes do it either by his fume and smoke or else by his purging facultie For there be no moe waies I trow how he shold do it for by the way of foode I think you meane it not for that is alreadie resolued vpon and put downe as a principle That no man feedeth on Tabacco as to make his meales thereof Well then as touching the fume of Tabacco here in this chapter you plainely and precisely affirme that by the smoke or fume of Tabacco all sorts of melancholy are augmented and increased c. But in another place you haue as plainely affirmed likewise that no impression of any matter either to do hurt or good can be made by the smoke or fume of Tabacco Of these two contradictions I know not I promise you what to make they appeare vnto me much like to the Aegiptians fast and loose so that a man cannot tell where to haue you For to do no hurt at all as you say and to do so great a harme as to increase all sorts of melancholie being a matter of so great moment c. which also you do say it doth so puzzle my wits to reconcile them well as in truth I know not what to make of it If you can reconcile them I pray you then do it for in truth I cannot As for the reason that you bring to proue Tabacco to leaue in our braine a black swarfe sootish tincture because it doth all to be-blacke the Pipe wherein it is taken ó Lord it is a very weake reason For betweene your dead and sencelesse Pipes made of earth or otherwise and the liuely cauities passages and pipes of ouâ— breathing and liuing bodies there is no likelihood or comparison to be made And for proofe hereof let vs not stand now vpon making of schoole syllogismes but let vs fall to a flat demonstration and one demonstration you know verie well is worth fiue syllogismes My demonstration then at a word is this looke me but into the throats and nosthrils of all the great Tabacco takers view them well I say and prie into their noses as much as ye please and I will lay what wager you will that you shall find them as faire nosed gentlemen and as cleane mouthed and throated as any men aliue I will warrant you Againe to go a litle farther and to proue that
alledge that by the same extreme heat of Tabacco bloud being vndigested and crude becometh vnfit for the sperme and seed of man therby is hindred the propagation of mankind by this hellish smoke out of Plutoes forge This reason wholy dependeth vpoÌ„ the same foundation that the other did and therfore may well receiue the same answer that the other had So that in a matter vnnecessarie there needeth not any necessary speech to be had But whereas you do confidently affirme that Tabacco cureth the disease called Gonorrhaea and there uppon would seeme to inferre that therefore it hindreth propagation good Lord how are you deceiued therein and yet in so saying what an excellent gift and vertue haue you found out in Tabacco and what a siâ—gular praise haue you put downe on Tabaccoes side I for my part haue as much labored in the curing of that disease as perchance most men haue of our profession and I hope to with as good successe But if I had thought in all the time of my practise that Tabacco had bene such a fellow and had had any such prerogatiue in the cure of that disease assure your selfe I would haue bene better acquainted with him then I am I would haue giuen him right good entertainement I will not vse many words in this matter for diuers good honest respects neither enter into any discourse to rip vp the diuerse kinds natures and differences of that loathsome disease or once seeme to mention the causes occasions thereof or to deale with any part of his remedies But let this only suffice for an infallible principle a thing to be maintained against all gaine sayers That whatsoeuer is good to cure that sicknesse that selfe same thing is singular good to helpe and farther propagation if it be orderly administred and rightly vnderstood For what thing in the world is there that is a greater enemy to generation then that disease is Tum quia corrumpiâ— totum nostrum corpus reddit ipsum semen languidum effoetum tum quia ipsa generandi etiam instrumenta nimis flaccida facit ad cocundum prorsus inepta Sed hoc in loco parcè timideque loquendum est Noui enim quà m sint malè morata haec nostra tempora in quà m audax oeuum aâ— dissolutam aetatem inciderimus Quocirca vt decentiae pudoris ac verecundiae iusta honesta ratio habeatur arbitramur multò meliùs esse hìc consistere quà m longiùs progredi The fifth reason is for that It decaieth and dissipateth naturall heate that kindly warmth in vs and thereby is cause of crudities and rheumes occasion of infinite maladies c. These obiections are much like vnto those that went before and are already sufficiently answered But yet for farther satisfaction let this yet be remembred by the way That in another place before your selfe hath confessed That in cold rheumaticke hydropicall bodies c. Tabacco may do much good And now is it become the cause of increase of these rheumes and cold waterish humors in our bodies here is a great alteration indeed vpon a sudden Likewise in another place you sayd it cured D. T. ofhis cold rheumaticke stomach And as I take it that was done by giuing of it some increase of good heate with a sufficient drinesse for otherwise I know he could not haue bene cured For this is flat and plaine that contraria contrarijs curantur And I am sure your selfe also is of that opinion And is Tabacco now found out to be a decayer and dissipator of that naturall kindly heate which heretofore it did giue and procure to others by your owne confession By my fay the reconciling of these and the like speeches whereof there be diuerse in your booke will put a wiser man then I am or your selfe either to cast about and to seeke the bottome of his wits how it may be brought to passe But for that the proofe of this your fifth reason hangeth vpon the proofe of your fourth argument as your selfe saith and for that cause your selfe also is willing to referre vs ouer to that fourth part of your Discourse euen so will I do to and so here rest a while And in the meane time if it will please you to giue me leaue to enter into the consideration of some of your pretty odde conceits which you haue here set downe in this chapter I will thanke you The troth is I feare me I am not very well able to conceiue your meaning thoroughly by reason that to my thinking in the deliuering of them you do vse diuerse kinds of windings in and out and as it were certaine turnings to and fro that are not altogether voyde of obscurity but it may be it is my weakenesse in vnderstanding and not your darkenesse in penning And therfore in truth I craue pardon if I chance to make an offence in mistaking c. One of your conceits is this That much hardnesse and drinesse is the occasion that moisture cannot enter If you meane by these words hard and dry an excessiue and an extreame hardnesse and drinesse in the highest degree then it may be yeelded vnto As for example A hard flint or a marble stone or a hote hard dry gad of steele will admit no moisture into it I confesse though you powre neuer so much water vpon them But what is this to Tabacco or what analogie or proportion is there betweene our bodies and these things though old bodies be dry and hard too yet are they neuer so dry and hard but they can admit moisture well inough like as when the earth is verie dry in so much that it is thereby full of chaps and chinkes because it is a porous bodie as we call it and in some sort spongious it is therfore apt able to receiue great moisture and to drinke in mightie showers of raine as daily experience sheweth albeit as it should seeme you are of a contrary opinion And euen so fareth it with our bodies Another conceit of yours is this That drinesse doth not onely hinder the receiuing of moisture but also by that meanes it is an enemy to nourishment as you inferre vpon it First to answer you merily and so I pray you to take it all the suckgrouts in London and all the whole company of tiplers of which societie I tell you there is not the least number will be all vpon you with open voice and come all against you in this to testifie That drinesse neuer hindered as yet the receiuing and imbibing in of any good liquor But in good sadnesse I thinke you speake and meane this of an exceeding great drinesse and in the highest degree and such as cannot be found in our bodies for so it must needes be that you meane and no otherwise And in that sence I assure you ouermuch wet also is as great an enemy to nourishmeÌ„t as by this familiar example may soone appeare Admit a