ODORS AND LIFE. 199 



to odors in their ingenious fictions of theology. They be- 

 lieved that the gods always declare their presence by 

 an ambrosial fragrance, as Virgil tells us, in speaking of 

 Venus ; * and Moschus, describing Jupiter transformed to a 

 bull. The use of perfumes in religious ceremonies had for 

 its purpose the excitement of a sort of intoxication in the 

 priests and priestesses, and also to disguise the smell of 

 blood and of decaying matters, the offal of the sacrifices. 

 The Christian religion borrowed from paganism the use of 

 perfumes in the rites of worship. There was even a period 

 at which the Church of Rome owned estates in the East 

 devoted exclusively to plantations of trees yielding balsamic 

 resins. 



Besides these uses, odors were, in old times, still oftener 

 employed in private life. Nothing surprises us more, in read- 

 ing the ancient authors, than their relations on this subject. 

 Among the Jews, the use of perfumes was restrained 

 within proper limits, by the regulations of the Mosaic 

 laws, which consecrated them to worship. But, with the 

 Greeks, it reached an extraordinary height and refinement. 

 They kept their robes in perfumed chests. They burned 

 aromatic substances during their banquets ; they scented 

 their wines ; they covered their heads with fragrant es- 

 sences at their festivals. At Athens, the perfumers had 

 shops which were places for public resort. Apollonius, a 

 scholar of Theophilus, left a treatise on perfumes which 

 proves that, even as regards the extraction of essences, 

 the Greeks had attained astonishing perfection. Neither 

 Solon's laws nor Socrates's rebukes could check the prog- 

 ress of that passion. The Romans inherited it from 

 Greece, and enlarged the stock of Eastern perfumes by 

 those of Italy and Gaul. They used them profusely to give 



1 " Then, as the goddess turned, a rosy glow 



Flushed all her neck, and from her head the locks 

 Ambrosial breathed celestial fragrance round." x 



