tbe J&lbet 37 



that made them so fond of the garden was the fact 

 that its produce needs no fire and ensures econ- 

 omy in fuel, and that it offers resources which 

 are always ready at hand. These articles of 

 food, which from their peculiar nature we call 

 "vinegar-diets," were found to be easy of di- 

 gestion, by no means apt to blunt and overload 

 the senses, and to create but little craving for 

 bread as an accompaniment. A portion of them 

 which is still used by us for seasonings, attests 

 that our forefathers used only to look at home 

 for their resources, and that no Indian peppers 

 were in request with them, or any of those 

 other condiments which we are in the habit of 

 seeking beyond the seas. In former times the 

 lower classes of Rome, with their mimic gardens 

 in their windows, day after day presented the 

 reflex of the country to the eye, when as yet the 

 multitudes of atrocious burglaries, almost innu- 

 merable, had not compelled us to shut out all 

 such sights with bars to the passers-by. 



Let the garden, then, have its due meed of 

 honor, and let not things, because they are 

 common, enjoy for that the less share of our 

 consideration and the more so, as we find that 

 from it men of the very highest rank have been 

 content to borrow their surnames even ; thus in 

 the Valerian family, for instance, the Lactucini 

 have not thought themselves disgraced by tak- 



