There is, to be sure, a charming couplet in
some old humanist about LYMPHA NEPENTHI; but modern scholars are
disposed to think either that the text is corrupt and that the writer
was picturing an imaginary NYMPHA--some laughing sea-lady--or else that
he merely indulged in one of those poetic flights which are a feature
of the literature of his period. For whatever the cause may be--whether
internal fires have scorched up the natural humours of the soil, or
whether the waters of Nepenthe are of such peculiar heaviness that,
instead of flowing upwards in the shape of fountains, they tumble
downwards into caverns below the sea--the fact remains: Nepenthe is a
waterless land. And this may well be the reason, as several thoughtful
observers have already pointed out, why its wines are so abundant in
quantity, so cheap in price, and of such super-excellent flavour. For
it is a fact conformable to that law of compensation which regulates
all earthly affairs, a fact borne out by the universal experience of
mankind, that God, when He takes away with one hand, gives with the
other.
Pages:
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324