Page:The Anatomy of Tobacco.pdf/50

 this tobacco must have position. Now, since jar, pouch, &c., are terms of which the meaning is "things to contain tobacco," it follows that anything which contains tobacco will come under the same category. But it has been shown that tobacco must be contained by something—i.e., have position; therefore the matter now named unnecessary should rightly be termed necessary, though contingently and not absolutely.

Secondly come those who attack the scholastic definition of smoking—"the inhaling the fume of tobacco"—and substitute for it "the inhaling the fume of any soporific or narcotic herb or substance," the effect of which is to alter in some manner the category of impossible matter. For in accordance with their theory they remove opium and all narcotics as being not really impossible, and place them in a new category of contingently possible matter. These men, however, do not go as far as some, who would abolish impossible matter altogether, their definition of smoking being "the in-