The Anatomy of Tobacco
other matters, wisdom lies in the mean, for he who buys tobacco at a great price needs a long purse, and he who buys it at a small price a strong stomach, but if he observe the mean he need have neither. Thirdly, those from whom you buy, the best division of whom is into male and female. Now the male seller of tobacco is of various sorts, of which take for example (1) the man of many words. From such a one you have much talking concerning all matters in general, especially if he be from foreign lands, which lands he doth not fail greatly to commend, but yet hath no desire to return unto them; (2) the man of few words, whose sole topic is the weather; (3) the man of no words, who selleth thee tobacco as if thou wast doing him an injury, and taketh thy money with a forbidding countenance. Yet if thou givest him no money is his countenance yet more forbidding, which is strange and with difficulty to be explained. For since the contradictory of receiving some money is receiving no money, and likewise the
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