May — The Golden Water. 133 



upon this point, and distilled from it a miraculous 

 water, — the ' Golden Water/ as they called it ; and 

 whoso drank thereof was believed to be sure of regain- 

 ing the strength that had left his limbs. Is it not 

 sad that we may no longer put trust in all those wonder- 

 ful remedies — there are a hundred of them — which in 

 old times gave hope at least, if they could not restore 

 to health ? There is another humble little plant that 

 flowers in May (and also in October) in pastures and 

 waste places, and was called Potentilla, because it was 

 believed to be so potent as a remedy. In these days 

 we see its pretty yellow flowers without reverence for 

 its potency. Just in the same temper of ready credulity 

 on the most fanciful grounds our forefathers used to 

 believe that the plant they called Lung-wort {Pulmona- 

 ria) must be good for the cure of lung disease, because 

 its leaves were blotched like the lungs of a consumptive 

 person ! What a wonderful piece of reasoning that 

 was ! How remote from the scientific spirit ! We may 

 laugh, and yet that is exactly the sort of reasoning 

 which finds ready acceptance with the untrained minds 

 of the vulgar, and a hundred things are still believed by 

 uneducated persons of all ranks on grounds at least 

 equally absurd. 



