MYRTLE. 
105 
that she revenged herself on the audacious 
Psyche, who had dared to compare her transitory 
charms to immortal beauty. 
At Rome the Myrtle-garland of the Loves 
was sometimes mingled, in honour of Mars and 
Venus, with the laurel on the triumphant con¬ 
queror’s brow. And now that triumphs have 
ceased at the Capitol, the Roman ladies have 
retained a strong predilection for this plant. 
They prefer its odour to that of the most fra¬ 
grant essences, and they impregnate their baths 
with a water distilled from its leaves, persuaded 
that the plant of Venus must be favourable to 
beauty. If the ancients were possessed by a 
similar persuasion, if they truly deemed it the 
symbol of love, it was because they had observed 
that the Myrtle, wherever it grows, excludes all 
other plants. Just so love, wherever it has es¬ 
tablished its sway, excludes from the heart all 
other feelings. 
5 * 
