Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the AncientsBacon, Francis
Philosophy
Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients
Bacon, Francis
Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626; English essays -- Early modern, 1500-1700; Mythology, Classical
And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where
it comes and goes, like the warbling of music), than in the hand,
therefore nothing is more fit for that delight, than to know what be
the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air. Roses, damask
and red, are fast flowers[483] of their smell, so that you may walk by
a whole row of them, and find nothing of their sweetness; yea, though
it be in a morning’s dew. Bays, likewise, yield no smell as they grow,
rosemary little, nor sweet marjoram; that which, above all others,
yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet, especially the
white double violet, which comes twice a year, about the middle of
April, and about Bartholomew-tide. Next to that is the musk-rose;
then the strawberry leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell;
then the flower of the vines, it is a little dust like the dust of a
bent,[484] which grows upon the cluster in the first coming forth; then
sweet-brier, then wall-flowers, which are very delightful to be set
under a parlor or lower chamber window; then pinks and gillyflowers,
specially the matted pink and clove gillyflower; then the flowers of
the lime-tree; then the honeysuckles, so they be somewhat afar off.
Of bean-flowers[485] I speak not, because they are field-flowers; but
those which perfume the air most delightfully, not passed by as the
rest, but being trodden upon and crushed, are three; that is, burnet,
wild thyme, and water-mints; therefore you are to set whole alleys of
them, to have the pleasure when you walk or tread.
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