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James I on Smoking

James I

A saying of King James I of England (James VI of Scotland) on smoking, which has much modern resonance. Taken from John Aubrey’s Brief Lives :

“A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”

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