THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 323 



clearing up ; while now the silliest fancies are only too often 

 substituted. 



We of course therefore still find an abundance of rela- 

 tions between religious Mythus and the Vegetable World, 

 we are not at present in a position to interpret. The 

 indication of Love and Marriage, for instance, by the Rose 

 and Myrtle, current even among the most ancient nations, 

 certainly does not depend upon a mere aesthetic pleasure, 

 but on a deeper relation to the Greek religion of Nature, 

 the decyphering of which would indeed explain to us, why 

 two of the Graces were characterized with the Rose and 

 Myrtle, but the third with the Dice. The bow also of the 

 Indian God of Love, Kamadawa, made from the Sugar- 

 cane, symbolized something more than the sweetness of 

 Love, which were but a chilling metaphor, and undoubtedly 

 a profound contemplation of Nature gave him the rose-red 

 blossoms of the Amra-tree for arrow-heads. 



It will be readily allowed that this symbolization of the 

 world of Plants did not come to an end with a particular 

 epoch of humanity, but that the inexhaustible matter is also 

 progressively shared by the poetic spirit of nations, though 

 the origin of one such parable may now be lost in the 

 multitude of races, or have attached itself definitely to one 

 single genius, which has prophesied to the nations with such 

 true feeling, that these have adopted the foreign thought as 

 common property. Thus it may often be difficult to 

 determine how far up into history reaches the first origin 

 and perfecting of a subsequently universally used com- 

 parison, a typical signification of a plant, or a process in 

 its life. The courteous Lily, the modest Violet, the proud 

 Crown Imperial and so on, are such natural and intelligible 

 figures, that we find them alike in almost every cultivated 

 nation, and yet we know neither of these, nor of countless 



