BOOK XVII. III. 36-39 



workiiig and for the crops. We need only try to see 

 the meaning of this remarkably significant expression 

 ' tender ', and we shall discover that the term com- 

 priscs every desideratum. ' Tender ' soil is soil of 

 moderate richness, a soft and easily worked soil, 

 neither damp nor parched; it is soil that shines 

 behind the ploughshare, Uke the field which Homer, 

 the fountain-head of all genius,has described** as re- 

 presented bv a divine artist in a carving on a shield, 

 and he has added the niarvellous touch about the 

 furrow showing black although the material used 

 to represent it was gold ; it is the soil that when 

 freshly turned attracts the rascally birds which ac- 

 company the ploughshare and thc tribe of crows 

 which peck the very footprints of the ploughman. 



In this place moreover mav be quoted a dictum soiu dU- 

 as to luxury tliat is also undoubtedly to the point. '^y^l]!^ 

 Cicero, that other luminary of learning, says * * Un- smeii. 

 guents with an earthy taste are better than those 

 with the flavour of saffron ' — he preferred the word 

 ' taste ' to ' smell '. It is certainly the case that a soil 

 which has a taste of perfume will be the best soil. 

 And if we need an explanation as to what is the 

 nature of this odour of the soil that is desiderated, it 

 is that which often occurs even when the ground is 

 not being turned up, just towards sunset, at the place 

 where the ends of rainbows have come down to earth, 

 and when the soil has been drenched with rain follow- 

 ing a long period of drought. The earth thcn sends 

 out that divine breath of hers, of quite incomparable 

 sweetness, which she has conceived from the sun. This 

 is the odour which ought to be emitted when the earth 

 is turned up, and when found it will deceive no one ; 

 and the scent of the soil will be the best criterion of its 



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