The Anatomy of Tobacco
ticulars of time, proceeds to place, relation, action, passion, and so on through the categories until the whole circumstances, with what preceded and what followed, are run over anew. So that the very slightest matter which occurred formerly is now remembered and pondered over, it may be even to a ridiculous and disproportionate extent. And this seems to be a very rational view to take of the matter, far more agreeable to the intellect than the former hypotheses I have cited. For if we allow that the ideas do actually exist in the pipe itself it must follow that they exist for all who may afterward smoke it, and not alone for the original smoker. So we might suppose a new species of divination arising named capnomancy, in which by merely smoking a pipe we might gain a knowledge not only of the deeds or words of others but their very thoughts and desires, which would be an art greedily sought after and pursued, and, indeed, might have we know not what results. For since it is agreed that the superior produces the inferior, and since ideas are
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