LETTER LV. 



THE GROUNDSEL — LAUREL — LIBERTTj FRATERNITT. AND EauALITY, 



It is evident that groundsel was created for the birds of 

 the fields : as man has determined, as I told you yesterday, to 

 refer everything to himself; he has imagined the following 

 use for groundsel : — You have the tooth-ache ; groundsel 

 was made expressly to cure your tooth-ache. — Pull up a root 

 of groundsel, cut through the root with a razor or a very sharp 

 knife, replant the groundsel, and preserve only the portion 

 you have cut off, and which you must apply three or four 

 times to your ailing tooth; it is very probable you will 

 be cured, says Pliny ; but that depends upon a condition; 

 the groundsel that you have replanted after having mutilated 

 its root, must continue to vegetate and to do well ; if it should 

 die, your tooth will give you more pain than ever. 



Let us stop a little ; — here is the laurel of the poets,* the 

 laurel of triumphant conquerors ! — but, alas ! also the laurel of 

 hams ! But there is another more humble laurel, which 

 serves likewise to crown victors, and which has escaped the 

 disgrace of being employed in sauces, and in decorating the 

 smoked members of an impure animal; it is the Alexandrine 



* The bay-tree. Ed. 



