mention a great many which have their names from their proper virtues.
But the care and the experience of the ancients sufficiently appears in
those of which they made their garlands when they designed to be merry
and frolic over a glass of wine; for wine, especially when it seizes on
the head, and weakens the body just at the very spring and origin of
the sense, disturbs the whole man. Now the effluvia of flowers are an
admirable preservative against this, they secure the brain, as it were a
citadel, against the effects of drunkenness; for those that are hot
upon the pores and give the fumes free passage to exhale, and those
moderately cold repel and keep down the ascending vapors. Such are the
violet and rose; for the odors of both these are prevalent against any
ache and heaviness in the head. The flowers of the privet and crocus
bring those that have drunk freely into a gentle sleep; for they
send forth a smooth and gentle effluvia, which softly takes off all
asperities that arise in the body of the drunken; and so all things
being quiet and composed, the violence on the noxious humor is abated
and thrown off. The smells of some flowers being received into the brain
cleanse the organs and instruments of sense, and gently by their heat,
without any violence or force, dissolve the humors, and warm and cherish
the brain itself, which is naturally cold. And upon this account, they
call those little posies they hang about their necks [Greek omitted],
and anointed their breasts with the oils that were squeezed from them;
and of this Alcaeus is a witness, when he bids his friends,
Pour ointments o'er his laboring temples, pressed
With various cares, and o'er his aged breast.
For the warm odors shoot upward into the very brain, being drawn up by
the nostrils. For they did not call those garlands hung about the neck
[Greek omitted] because they thought the heart was the seat and citadel
of the mind [Greek omitted], for on that account they should rather have
called them [Greek omitted], but, as I said before, from their vapor
and exhalation. Besides, it is no strange thing that these smells of
garlands should be of so considerable a virtue; for some tell us that
the shadow of the yew, especially when it blossoms, kills those that
sleep under it; and a subtle spirit ariseth from pressed poppy, which
suddenly overcomes the unwary squeezers. And there is an herb called
alyssus, which to some that take it in their hands, to others that do
but look on it, is found a present remedy against the hiccough; and some
affirm that planted near the stalls it preserves sheep and goats from
the rot and mange. And the rose is called [Greek omitted], probably
because it sends forth a stream [Greek omitted] of odors; and for that
reason it withers presently. It is a cooler, yet fiery to look upon; and
no wonder, for upon the surface a subtile heat, being driven out by the
inward heat, looks vivid and appears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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