The Prof Tells All

Need A Light?

The pipe is not merely a wooden or clay tool which some men use to while away their time...it is a tool which corresponds to the soul. & not merely the soul, but the rational area of it.

This explains - consequently - why we tend to think of wise and ancient figures smoking long-stemmed pipes, stroking antiquated beards: the Oxford don, surrounded by massive volumes of dusty books, puffing away contentedly as he theorizes on the meaning of life or the hyperconductivity of some natural element: or even the prestigious Sherlock Holmes, who, in Doyle's original stories, actually smoked various sorts of tobacco, yet is nearly always portrayed with a pipe.

And yet, as I think on the value and emphasis of the pipe, I realise that perhaps one of the reasons pipes are so nostalgic is that, unlike cigars and cigarettes: a pipe endures.

Similarly, the questions of the philosopher far outlast the passing concerns of physical desires (cigarettes) on the one hand and human ambitions (cigars) on the other.

Further, while the cigar is entirely masculine, the pipe has both masculine and feminine elements (the stem and the bowl). This - in contrast to other forms of smoking - corresponds to the philosopher's activity, which is - if it may be put thus - both masculine and feminine: masculine in its pursuit of Lady Truth, feminine (I say this with abashment) in its reception of anything that she discloses.

& Finally, the effect that the pipe has on others is analogous to the effect of philosophizing: the smooth & simultaneously exhilerating fragrance of a pipe, like good philosophy, is a blessing to all who partake.