THE ROSEj THE PEACH, AND THE PLANET MERCURY. 821 
vestal planet, ex-chief of the satellites of the miniature cardinal 
(Earth). There is, indeed, nothing fresher, more gracious, sweet, 
fragrant, and soft than the rose, the sweet and garden pea, the 
peach, the strawberry, speaking emblems of virginity, charms of 
odor, taste, and sight, ephemeral flowers, whose tender color seems 
penetrated with the incarnate of the virgin’s lips — fruits perfumed 
like her breath, bearing on their epidermis the down of her cheeks ; 
fruits also ephemeral, not to be kept, and which we must hasten to 
eat in their prime. It is unnecessary to say that the name of the 
planet to whom we owe the rose, the pea, and the peach, is per- 
fectly unknown at the Bureau of the Longitudes, where they ^tre 
not in the habit of judging the stars by their fruits. They have 
called it Mercury ! They have found among them all no name 
more suitable than that of the patron of the ignoble shop, to desig- 
nate the creator of the rose. Mercury ... a planet aromatized 
in the vestalic title ! I can pardon ofncial science many things, 
but not misdeeds of this sort. Singular laws, however, those 
which rule us, which forbid us to treat as a robber ; a usurer, a bag 
of dollars with a human face, a brute, a madrepore, a sponge, a 
being who is nothing to us ; and which permit awkward nicknames 
to be inflicted on the stars that make our happiness. 
One more word in behalf of the dog, cardinal emblem of friend- 
ship, vigilant satellite and police offlcer of man, always ready to 
fight and to die for him ; need I say that the dog is a pivotal crea- 
tion of the Earth, cardinal of friendship ? 
It is the same with the vine, one of the most characteristic pro- 
ductions of the gamut of Friendship, and assuredly one of those 
which do it most credit. 
If I here say a word too much, it is not in favor of the hunting 
dog, but of another species, the most faithful, alas ! and the most 
disdained. I do not ask the analogy— I ask the origin of the wa- 
ter-spaniel, the humble spaniel, the victim poodle, the same that 
plays at dominoes and that follows his master’s vehicle alone. 
The answer is easy for one who has read with profit the deso- 
lating narrative which I lately gave of Phoebe’s death. The poo- 
dle dog is the last testimonial of affection received by the Earth 
from her unfortunate satellite, stricken with contagion in the flow- 
