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the peacock. And fortune willed it that just at that moment the bird should unfurl all his beauty, and spread the glorious' show of his plumage. This,' said I, the bird does not without a certain art of its own. It is a lover. When it wishes to attract its mate it bedecks itself thus. Look, there she is beside the plane tree,'and I pointed out the female bird - it is for her he now shows his beauty.' . . . Satyros perceived my intention and the drift of my words. 'Love truly has power,' said he, to send its flame even into the hearts of birds. Not only into the hearts of birds,' said I, it is no wonder that he can do that, since he himself has wings. But he darts his flame into the hearts of creeping things, plants, nay, as I think, even of stones. Does not the magnesian stone love iron. If she but see it she draws it to herself, as having within her something of the nature of love. Consider whether the coming together of the stone and the iron be not the kiss of the loved and the lover? As to plants, the children of the wise have a story which they would call a myth, if it were not that the children of husbandmen say the same thing. The story is this : Every plant loves some other plant, but on none does love lie heavier than on the palm tree.* They say that some palm trees are male, some females. The male then loves the female, and if she chance to be put far away in the order of planting the lover pines. The husbandman becomes aware of the sorrow of the tree, and mounting where he can see all around, he marks in what direction the palm tree bends. For it leans towards its love. Seeing this the husbandman cures the tree's complaint; he cuts the shoot from the female palm, and grafts it into the heart of the male. He thus refreshes the soul of the tree. Before it was ready to die, but now it takes fresh life and stands erect, rejoicing in the embrace of its love. This is the marriage of plants.'”+ (P. 56.)
uts it into the hepaint; he cuts the neeing this
* As certain of our own poets have said : and none more beautifully than Heine
Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam, Im Norden auf kabler Höh'. Ihn schläfert: mit weisser Decke Umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee. Er träumt von einer Palme, Die fern im Morgenland Einsam und schweigend trauert
Auf brennender Felsenwand. + नास्ति खल्वसाध्यं नाम भगवतो मनोभुवः | क्वार्य हरिण इव वनवासनिरतःस्वभावमुग्धो जनः । क्व च विविधविलासरसराशिर्गन्धर्वराजपुत्री महाश्वेता | सर्वथा न हि किंचिदस्य दुर्घटं दुष्करमनायत्तमकर्तव्यं वा जगति । दुरुपपादेष्वर्थेष्वयमवज्ञया विचरति । नायं केनापि प्रतिकूलयितुं शक्यते | का वा गणना सचेतनेषु | अपगतचेतनान्यपि संघदृयितमलं यद्यस्मै रोचते | तत्कमदिन्यपि दिनकरकरानुरागिणी भवति । कमलिन्यपि शशिकरद्वेषमुज्झति |
