256 PROSERPINA. 



juice at all. We still stand absolutely in want 

 of a word to express the more or less firm 

 substance of fruit, as distinguished from all other 

 products of a plant. And with the usual ill- 

 luck — (I advisedly think of it as demoniacal 

 misfortune) — of botanical science, no other name 

 has been yet used for such substance than the 

 entirely false and ugly one of 'Flesh,' — Fr., 'Chair,' 

 with its still more painful derivation ' Charnu,' 

 and in England the monstrous scientific term, 

 ' Sarco-carp.' 



But, under the housewifery of Proserpina, since 

 we are to call the juice of fruit, Nectar, its sub- 

 stance will be as naturally and easily called 

 Ambrosia ; and I have no doubt that this, 

 with the other names defined in this chapter, 

 will not only be found practically more con- 

 venient than the phrases in common use, but 

 will more securely fix in the student's mind a 

 true conception of the essential differences in sub- 

 stance, which, ultimately, depend wholly on their 

 pleasantness to human perception, and offices for 

 human good ; and not at all on any otherwise 

 explicable structure or faculty. It is of no use to 

 determine, by microscope or retort, that cinnamon 

 is made of cells with so many walls, or grape- 

 juice of molecules with so many sides ; — we are 



