340 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Spices have always been regarded as luxurious 

 acquisitions, while their small comparative bulk, 

 and consequent facility of transport, caused them to 

 be among the first articles of commerce obtained 

 from remote countries. The inhabitant of more tem- 

 perate regions has therefore, for ages, been in the 

 enjoyment of most of the delicious aromatics, fostered 

 by a tropical sun. 



The higher classes of the Romans used spices in 

 more costly profuseness than the moderns, though the 

 better knowledge of navigation, by producing a direct 

 and frequent intercourse between nations, has now 

 caused them to be sufficiently cheap to place them 

 within the reach of all ranks of society. 



Among the ancients, spices of all kinds, as well 

 as frankincense and myrrh, were made to lend their 

 perfume to the wreathed smoke which ascended both 

 from the altars of their gods, and the funereal piles 

 of their nobles. Prodigious quantities of frankin- 

 cense and spices were thus consumed at the funeral 

 of Sylla; and Nero is said to have lavished more 

 than a whole year's supply in celebrating the obse- 

 quies of his wife Poppa3a. The country of the Sa- 

 beans, situated in Arabia Felix, was celebrated for 

 the abundance of these aromatic plants. ' Among 

 this people,' says Pliny, ' no other kinds of wood but 

 those which sent forth sweet odour were used as fuel, 

 and they cooked their food with the branches of trees 

 yielding frankincense and myrrh.'* The very ocean, 

 it was said, was perfumed wilh the fragrance of their 

 spices and aromatics. Agatharchides, an ancient 

 author, who wrote about two thousand years ago, 

 gave a glowing description of this country. It is 

 probable that his panegyric suggested to Milton the 

 following simile : 



* Pliny, lib. xii, cap. 18. Tacitus, Ann. lib. xvi, cap. 6. 



