How did King James I criticize tobacco use in Counterblaste to Tobacco?

In his 1604 work Counterblaste to Tobacco, King James I strongly opposed the growing trend of tobacco use, which many of his contemporaries mistakenly viewed as a universal medical cure.

He famously condemned the practice by describing it as "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."1

By using such vivid, visceral language, the King sought to frame smoking not merely as a social vice, but as a physically and morally corrupting habit. His critique stood in stark contrast to the era's prevailing trend of aristocratic patronage, which had helped introduce and popularize tobacco in European courts.1