182 PROSERPINA. 



31. It is the queen, not only of the violet tribe, but of all 

 fow-growing flowers, in sweetness of scent variously appli- 

 cable and serviceable in domestic economy : the scent of the 

 lily of the valley seems less capable of preservation or use. 



But, respecting these perpetual beneficences and benignities 

 of the sacred, as opposed to the malignant, herbs, whose 

 poisonous power is for the most part restrained in them, dur- 

 ing their life, to their juices or dust, and not allowed sensibly 

 to pollute the air, I should like the scholar to re-read pp. 240, 

 241 of vol. i., and then to consider with himself what a gro- 

 tesquely warped and gnarled thing the modern scientific 

 mind is, which fiercely busies itself in venomous chemistries 

 that blast every leaf from the forests ten miles round ; and yet 

 cannot tell us, nor even think of telling us, nor does even one 

 of its pupils think of asking it all the while, how a violet throws 

 off her perfume ! far less, whether it might not be more 

 wholesome to ' treat ' the air which men are to breathe in 

 masses, by administration of vale-lilies and violets, instead of 

 charcoal and sulphur ! 



The closing sentence of the first volume just now referred 

 to p. 243 should also be re-read ; it was the sum of a chap- 

 ter I had in hand at that time on the Substances and Essences 

 of Plants which never got finished ; and in trying to put 

 it into small space, it has become obscure: the terms "logi- 

 cally inexplicable " meaning that no words or process of com- 

 parison will define scents, nor do any traceable modes of se- 

 quence or relation connect them ; each is an independent 

 power, and gives a separate impression to the senses. Above 

 all, there is no logic of pleasure, nor any assignable reason for 

 the difference, between loathsome and delightful scent, which 

 makes the fungus foul and the vervain sacred : but one prac- 

 tical conclusion I (who am in all final ways the most prosaic 

 and practical of human creatures) do very solemnly beg my 

 readers to meditate ; namely, that although not recognized by 



energy, than other people's most laboured. I suppress, in some doubt? 

 about my 'digamma,' notes on the Greek violet and the Ion of 

 Euripides ; which the reader will perhaps be good enough to famy a 

 serious loss to him, and supply for himself. 



