The feeds are faid by Authors to poffefs a diuretic quality, and hence the powder of them has been recom ? 

 mended in the ftone and gravel. 



The great Bacon, who frequently defcended from his fublimer ftudies, and amufed himfelf with enquiries 



into the qualities and properties of plants, has left us a curious method of preferving the fcentofthis flower. 



" Take Violets, and infufe a good pugll in a quart of Vineger, let them Jland three quarters of an hour, and take 



" them forth, and rejreflo the infufwn with like quantity of Violets f even times ; and it will make a Vineger fo frejh 



" of the flower, as if a twelve moneth after it be brought you in a faucer, you fhall fmell it before it come at you. 



""Note. It fmelleth more perfectly of the flower a good while after than at the flr/l." 



The illuftrious prefcriber has given no directions concerning the ufe of this preparation, but it appears to us 



to be one of the moft grateful prefervatives againft infection, efpecially if the ftrongeft diftilled vinegar which 



has been drawn over in glafs, be made ufe of. 



The Violet has been much complimented by the antjent Poets ; and our Shakespeare gives it a confpi- 

 cuous place in his catalogue of flowers. 



Violets dim, 



" But fweeter than the lids, of Juno's eyes, 

 " Or Cy there a's breath." 



The Commentators have not been fuccefsful in informing us how the " lids ofJuNo's eyes" bear any refemblance 

 to " Violets dim " not recollecting that iofixscpugog (having violet eyelids) was a complimentary title with the Greek poets. 

 This epithet alludes to a well known cuftom which ftill prevails in Greece, of colouring the eye lids blue. *" A 

 It Grecian girl is painted blue round the eyes ; and the infides of the fockets, with the edges on which the 

 <" lafhes grow, are tinged with black: For colouring the lafhes and focket of the eye, they throw incenfe or 

 f< Gum of Labdanum on fome coals of fire, intercept the fmoak which afcends, with a plate, and collect the 

 «foot: This I faw applied; a girl fitting crofs-legged, as ufual, on a fopha, and clofing one of her eyes, took 

 " the two lafhes between the fore finger and thumb of her left hand, pulling them forward, and then thru/ting 

 " in, at the external corner, a bodkin which has been immerfed in the foot, and extracting it again, the par- 

 " tides before adhering to it remained within, and were prefently ranged round the organ, ferving as a foil' to 

 ," its luftre, befides contributing, as they fay, to its health, and ihcreafing its apparent magnitude," Chandler's 

 Travels into Greece. 



Altho' the poet of nature has been rather obfcure on this fubject, where he copies the ancients ; he makes 

 ample amends when he gives us the genuine effufions of his own imagination. With what precision and 

 delicacy does he defcribe the foft enchantment of plaintive mufic, as refembling the fweetnefs of this flower ■ 

 illuftrating in a beautiful fimile the object: of one fenfe by that of an other ! 



" That fir ain again ; // had a dying fall; 



" Oh I it came o'er my ear, like the fweet fouth, 

 " That, breathes upon a bank of violets, 

 "Stealing and giving odour 7" 



*A Greek poet fuppofed to be a Chriftian, from the feverity cf his manners and purity of his mftruftions, forbids this cuftom of painun^ tiie eve 

 lids, in ihe rules of conduit which he addrefles to young women, ° \ 



Naumachius, 

 It is probable tint the Greeks borrowed this fafhion from their Afiatic neighbours; Jezebel, a native of Zidon, put her eye: in painting as the 

 tranflators tell us ia the margin of our bible ; the Prophets alf9 allude to and ce nfure this cuftom, fee Jeremiah iv. 30. Exekid xxiii 40'. '•' 



