Page:The Anatomy of Tobacco.pdf/127

 which is so much to be desired between man and man it is an easy matter to slide (as it were) into disbursing for that thou hast received at longer and longer intervals, and finally into disbursing not at all. And thus is mere buying converted per accidens into stealing, and that without any risk or harm to the stealer.

So much for the four ways of becoming possessed of tobacco, to which some do add a fifth—namely, presentation, in which you receive it without request on your part and without the understanding that it is in any way to be repaid the presenter, but by free gift. But this is a very rare and phenomenal occurrence; nay, men have doubted whether there is such a thing as a gift at all, thinking to detect in every gift (so called) a certain sub-audition by which the giver implies that he expects some manner of repayment. This question I leave open, only observing that as there are four ways of becoming possessed of tobacco so there are four ways of becoming dispossessed of it—namely, by being borrowed of, by