58 THOREA U. 



we see placed to be overgrown in the forks of trees, 

 They have a saying in Suffolk, England, 



&quot; At Michaelmas time, or a little before, 

 Half an apple goes to the core.&quot; 



Early apples begin to be ripe about the first of 

 August ; but I think that none of them are so good 

 to eat as some to smell. One is worth more to scent 

 your handkerchief with than any perfume which they 

 sell in the shops. The fragrance of some fruits is not 

 to be forgotten, along with that of flowers. Some 

 gnarly apple which I pick up in the road reminds me 

 by its fragrance of all the wealth of Pomona, 1 car 

 rying me forward to those days when they will be 

 collected in golden and ruddy heaps in the orchards 

 and about the cider-mills. 



A week or two later, as you are going by orchards 

 or gardens, especially in the evenings, you pass through 

 a little region possessed by the fragrance of ripe ap 

 ples, and thus enjoy them without price, and without 

 robbing anybody. 



There is thus about all natural products a certain 

 ^/&quot; 



volatile and ethereal quality which represents their 



highest value, and which cannot be vulgarized, or 

 bought and sold. No mortal has ever enjoyed the 

 perfect flavor of any fruit, and only the godlike among 

 men begin to taste its ambrosial qualities. For nectar 

 and ambrosia are only those fine flavors of every 

 earthly fruit which our coarse palates fail to perceive, 

 just as we occupy the heaven of the gods without 

 knowing it. When I see a particularly mean man car 

 rying a load of fair and fragrant early apples to market, 

 I seem to see a contest going on between him and his 

 horse, on the one side, and the apples on the other, 

 1 The Roman goddess of fruit and fruit-trees. 



