{"value"=>"<p>Half-length portrait of W. M. Thackeray with cigar in left hand; left profile, three-quarter view.</p> <p>original artist unidentified; \"R. Taylor\" and initials \"G. P\". are incorporated into the image along arm of chair</p> <p>Printed beneath image: How the worship of the sacred plant of tobacco has spread through all Europe! I am sure that the persons who cryout against the use of it are guilty of superstition and unreason, and that it would be a proper and easy task for scientific persons to Write an encomium upon the weed. In solitude it is the pleasantest companion possible, and in company never de trap. To a student it suggests all sorts of agreeable thoughts, it refreshes the brain when weary, and every sedentary cigar-smoker will tell you how much good he has had from it, and how he has been able to return to his labour, after a quarter of an hour's mild interval of the delightful leaf of Havannah. Drinking has gone from among us since smoking came in. It is a wicked error to say that smokers are drunkards: drink they do, but of gentle diluents mostly, for fierce stimulants of wine or strong liquors are abhorrent to the real lover of the Indian weed. Ah! my Juliana, join not in the vulgar cry that is raised against us. Cigars and cool drinks beget quiet conversations, good-humour, meditation; not hot blood such as mounts into the head of drinkers of apoplectic port or dangerous claret. Are we not more moral and reasonable than our forefathers? Indeed I think so somewhat; and many improvements of social life and converse must date with the introduction of the pipe. Always most faithfully yours, W. M. Thackeray.; ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.; Handwritten in pencil on front: ODY 66; Stamped on verso: NYPL.</p>"}