256 A TOUR HOUND MY GARDEN. 



corrupted, and disinterested citizens, devoted to the public 

 good; and he is believed. 



To try your faith, the oracle relates to you the most absurd 

 histories ; and you believe him. 



Never was a deity so punctually obeyed. 



But the day is near its end ; the day finishes, the idol sees his 

 altars abandoned. On the morrow morning, he finds nothing 

 but disdainful iconoclasts in those that had been his most 

 fervent adorers ; he is exposed to more insults than he has 

 undergone in all that life so full of vicissitudes which we have 

 described. 



Never was idol so treated, he is out into round pieces 

 to cover pots of preserves, and into long pieces, to light 

 pipes with ; into square pieces, for children to make ducks, 

 boats, and salt-boxes of. 



There is no domestic use to which the idol of yesterday 

 may not be degraded to-day. 



During this time, another deity, who has likewise been 

 slipped under the door, comes in his turn to utter his oracles; 

 he is listened to and obeyed with the same respect and the 

 same kindness, until on the morrow he goes to the preserve 

 pots and to light the fire. 



Such is the true unadorned history of the greatness and 

 the fall of flax and hemp. 



Now, who could believe this, particularly of flax, which 

 has so innocent, so pure an air, when it opens in the morning 

 its little blue flowers, so light and so fragile ! 



