[A] It has recently been affirmed that there is a dirty goat in South America which will eat this dirty plant. Though it be unpopular to expose the evils of using tobacco; these evils are so appalling, it will not do to slumber over them longer.--We must look at them; we must lay them open--we must raise our voice against them; (we would gladly raise it so high that it should reach every family in the nation.) Yes, we must cry aloud and spare not; or give up our claim to patriotism, and benevolence. In approaching this subject, I am not unmindful of the pertinacity with which men adhere to old habits. Dr. Rush speaks of a venerable clergyman who closed a long sermon, in which he had controverted what he supposed an heretical opinion, with these words: "I tell you--I tell you, my brethren, I tell you again, that an _old error_ is better than a _new truth_." There are few who will assent to this proposition in plain terms; but there are thousands upon thousands, who act up to the very letter of it, constantly.--The history of man is extensively a history of folly, delusion, and sin. No error has been so absurd as not to find advocates--no habit has been so foolish, or so deadly, as not to find martyrs. But of all the delusions, which have prevailed among civilized men, there have been few--perhaps none, but that of intoxication--so disgusting, so inexcusable, so destructive to health, and wealth, and life, as the habit which we now ask you to consider. It will be borne in mind that my position is this; it is the bounden duty of every man and every woman to _abstain_, _immediately_, and _forever_, from _all use_ of tobacco, whether by _chewing_, _smoking_, or _snuffing_ except it be as a medicine. This position I maintain, I. From a consideration of the _history_ of this loathsome weed.--The tobacco plant is a native of America. It was unknown in Europe until some time after the discovery of America, by Columbus. It was first carried to Europe by Sir Francis Drake, about the year 1560, less than three hundred years ago. The natives of this continent called it _petun_; the natives of the islands called it _yoli_. The Spaniards gave it the name of _tobacco_, from _Tobaco_, a province of Yucatan in Mexico, where they first found it, and first learned its use. Its botanic name is _Nicotiana_, which it received from John Nicot, then Ambassador from Francis II. to Portugal, who brought it from Lisbon, and presented some of it to the Queen Catharine de Medicis, and to the Grand Prior of the house of Lorraine; whence it was sometimes called the Queen's herb, and the Grand Prior's herb. The practice of smoking it in England, was introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh, about the year 1584.