Page:The Anatomy of Tobacco.pdf/102

 such as a light colour, a strong odour, a heavy weight, and the like; also it must have come from some particular land or lands, such as Asia, America, Ægypt, and the like; yet all these are mere accidents, in no wise pertaining to our abstract notion of tobacco as metaphysically defined. This doctrine, now very generally received, was in some way shadowed forth by Pythagoras (albeit he used not the term "nicotinic," for it is of modern date), who spoke of a certain or power, corresponding to the virtue that was afterwards taught. And the theory we now maintain was first plainly declared by the Pundit Iradî Sânkhya, and further illustrated and exemplified by his commentator El-Mûdi. Hence arose the mystical School of Neo-Pythagoreans, who maintained that by a life of incessant smoking and meditation the philosopher might participate in the essential virtue, and comprehendedcomprehend [sic] its real nature. But here I will pause, and for two reasons—firstly, that I do not profess to communi-