"In the pulpit, at the bar, and on the stage, snuff has been equally valuable in adding to the persuasive eloquence and talent of its patrons. By the female portion of human-kind it was at one time pretty generally taken, nor was it uncommon for young and even pretty women to offer and accept a pinch in public. After the gentle sex had to a great extent given up the habit, some strong minded females were to be found who retained it. Mrs. Siddons, when she came off the stage after dying hard, as Desdemona, or harrowing the hearts of her audience by her representation of Jane Shore, could composedly ask those around for a pinch of the precious restorative. When we consider the beneficial influence which snuff has exerted over mankind generally, we cannot help regretting that its virtues were not sooner known. "For we put forth the proposition seriously, that its effect upon the world has been to render it more humane and even-tempered, and that had the western hemisphere discovered the tobacco plant earlier, historians would have had more pleasant events to chronicle. For instance, it is not impossible--nay, most probable--that the fate of Rome, discussed by the Triumvirate over their snuff-boxes, would have been different. Is it likely that, under the humanizing influence of mutual pinches, Antony would have asked for, or Augustus resigned, the head of Cicero to his bloodthirsty colleague; or that the other details of the conscription which deluged the streets of Rome with the blood of her best citizens, would have been agreed to? Again, can any one imagine Charles the Ninth and his evil counsellors plotting the massacre of St. Bartholomew over pinches of the soothing dust? Is it probable that the High Court of Justiciary would have entitled its royal martyr to a special service in the Book of Common Prayer, if its deliberation had been inspired by the kindly snuff which since that time has so often softened the rigor of the law? My hypothesis may seem an absurd one, but history supports it.