Page:The Anatomy of Tobacco.pdf/163



as I have lately treated of place I will now treat of time, which for the smoker may be cut into three divisions—initiative, inchoative-contingent, and ultimate, of which technical terms the meaning is this: initiative has reference to the time (or age) at which a man may begin to smoke; inchoative-contingent to the time (or hours) at which he smokes after he hath begun; and ultimate to the time after which he smokes no more, whether by death (which is woeful) or by the compulsion of others (which is more woeful), his own deliberate choice (which is beyond comparison most woeful). But, you ask, do I say that stopping short by death is the least woeful of all? Yea, verily I do. For as in the case of a drunkard (who does evilly) it is good if