Chap. 3.] 
"WHAT SOILS AEE BEST. 
451 
In a tender soil we shall find fertility combined with modera- 
tion, a softness and a pliancy easily adapted to cultivation, 
and an equal absence of humidity and of dryness. Earth 
of this nature will shine again after the plough- share has 
passed through it, just as Homer, that great fountain-head of 
all genius, has described it sculptured by the Divinity upon 
the arms [of Achilles], adding, too, a thing that is truly marvel- 
lous, that it was of a blackish hue, though gold was the mate- 
rial in which it was wrought. This, too, is that kind of earth, 
which, when newly turned up, attracts the ravenous birds that 
follow the plough- share, the ravens even going so far as to peck 
at the heels of the ploughman. 
We may in this place appropriately make mention of an 
opinion that has been pronounced by an Italian writer also 
with reference to a matter of luxury. Cicero, that other 
luminary of literature, has made the following remark : Those 
unguents which have a taste of earth are better/' says he, 
*nhan those which smack of saffron it seeming to him 
more to the purpose to express himself by the word taste "^^ 
than smell." And such is the fact, no doubt; that soil 
is the best which has the flavour of a perfume. If the 
question should be put to us, what is this odour of the earth 
that is held in such estimation, our answer is, that it is the 
same that is often to be recognized at the moment of sunset, 
Avithout the necessity even of turning up the ground, at the 
spots where the extremities of the rainbow have been ob- 
served to meet the earth ; as also when, after long- continued 
drought, the rain has soaked the ground. Then it is that the 
earth exhales this divine odour, that is so peculiarly its own, 
and to which, imparted to it by the sun, there is no perfume, 
however sweet, that can possibly be compared. It is this 
odour that the earth, when turned up, ought to emit, and 
which, when once found, can never deceive a person; and 
this will be found the best criterion for judging of the quality 
of the soil. Such, too, is the odour that is usually perceived 
^1 Iliad, xviii. 541 and 548. 
62 Yulcan. 63 De Oratore, sec. 39. 
64 See B. xiii. c. 4. 
^ " Sapiunt," rather than " redolent." 
66 This supposed flavour of the earth is, in reality, attributable to the 
extraneous vegetable matter which it contains. 
6^ See B. xii. c. 52, as to this notion. 
G G 2 
