and in the very numerous poems in various languages which have more or less obscurely dealt with the rose as the emblem of the feminine pudenda there are occasional references to the stream which guards or presides over the rose. It may, indeed, be recalled that even in the name _nymphæ_ anatomists commonly apply to the _labia minora_ there is generally believed to be a poetic allusion to the Nymphs who presided over streams, since the _labia minora_ exert an influence on the direction of the urinary stream. In _Wilhelm Meister_ (Part I, Chapter XV), Goethe, on the basis of his own personal experiences, describes his hero's emotions in the humble surroundings of Marianne's little room as compared with the stateliness and order of his own home. "It seemed to him when he had here to remove her stays in order to reach the harpsichord, there to lay her skirt on the bed before he could seat himself, when she herself with unembarrassed frankness would make no attempt to conceal from him many natural acts which people are accustomed to hide from others out of decency--it seemed to him, I say, that he became bound to her by invisible bands." We are told of Wordsworth (Findlay's _Recollections of De Quincey_, p. 36) that he read _Wilhelm Meister_ till "he came to the scene where the hero, in his mistress's bedroom, becomes sentimental over her dirty towels, etc., which struck him with such disgust that he flung the book out of his hand, would never look at it again, and declared that surely no English lady would ever read such a work." I have, however, heard a woman of high intellectual distinction refer to the peculiar truth and beauty of this very passage.