Alcohol, so far as I can judge, is good only as a physical stimulant
after great physical fatigue, and even then it should be taken in very
small quantities. As for tobacco, I have the bad habit of smoking
cigarettes, and find them useful between two ideas,--when I have the
first but have not arrived at the second; but I do not regard them as
a necessity. It is probable that there is a little diversion produced
at the same time, a little excitement and exhilaration. But every
custom of this kind becomes tyrannical, and the observations which
accompany your letter are very judicious. Among the men of letters and
men of science around me there is not one to my knowledge who in order
to think and to write has recourse to spirituous liquors; but
three-fourths of them smoke, and almost all take before their work a
cup of coffee. I have seen English journalists writing their articles
by night with the aid of a bottle of champagne. With us, the articles
are written in the day time, and our journalists have, therefore, no
necessity to resort to this stimulant.
H. TAINE.
March 28, 1882.
MR. ANTHONY TROLLOPE.
I have been a smoker nearly all my life. Five years ago I found it
certainly was hurting me, causing my hand to shake and producing
somnolence. I gave it up for two years. A doctor told me I had smoked
too much (three large cigars daily). Two years since I took to it
again, and now smoke three small cigars (very small), and, so far as I
can tell, without any effect.
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