The San Francisco call., 1904-11-23

call!
The ashes of immortal spring
Will smolder on within thy
fragile urn
Though loves blue flame in darkness
The signal torches cease to burn.
From the close and subtle relation
shop which exists between memory
and perfume it would seem as if Mo-
hammed were justified in calling
odors one of the two chief joys Of life,
and in ascribing to them mystic Ian
guage of their own. A fragrance watt
ed from a rose, the pungent scent of
summer balm. the honeyed breath of
clover bloom, may waken in the heart
a sleeping grief Of long ago, or, by the
thought it brings of happier days,
may soothe a present sorrow.
Memory's association with perfume
is one of the most fragrant mysteries
of loves psychology. This so-called
"decadent sense of modern man" is
still, in youths season of the affec5
tions, the most acute of all the senses.
To these influences girls are espe
cially sensitive. Their well-known
fondness for perfuming hair, breath,
garments and other belongings some
times amounts to a mania. Naturally
this peculiar susceptibility increases
under the excitement of emotion. And
so 1t comes about that often. In later
life, through the wonder and mys-
tery of memory, certain perfumes will
carry them back to this love and bios
som season of youth.
Perfume has sentimental influence
upon the masculine mind also. How
many lover has felt his mood change
from gayety to tenderness under the
spell of the violets that his sweetheart
worei How many one has treasured
his lady's dainty glove more fondly
because its fragrance reminded him of
the flower-like quality of its owners
personality! The faint, sweet smell
of the jasmine flower clings with SEN
suous charm about Owen Meredith's
famous love poem, AUX Italiens."
Similar ideas have always grouped
themselves about the shrine of love.
It was. among the fragrant cedar
groves of Idalium that the laughter
loving Aphrodite liked to dwell, and
there the Graces three anointed her
with oil ambrosial. And between the
pillars of her Sidonian house of gold,
girls and boys, rose-crowned. sacri-
feed with smoke and incense. with
sighs and song, to win the tickle ia
vor of the queen of love.
And Grecian Helens bower was
sweet with blossoms, with fragrant
leaves and crushed asphodel.
Everywhere in literature we find
this association of perfume with the
affections. It was a scientist. how
ever who declared that IT is the fra
GRANGE of woodland and garden that
makes the birds sing. 1t was a man
poet who wrote. in terms of sensuous
perception the most exquisite descrip-
ton that has ever been written of a
young girls innocence; says Runeberg
of his village girl, Her thoughts
were less words than perfume"
But women. more often and more
beautifully than men. have spoken Of
the haunting associations of sweet
odors. Writes one. the Amherst
poetess:
One dream bewitched of odors
sweet,
One dream of lilies clad in light
Compels my spirit to their feetl
OF tall white lilies-faint and frail,
Whose breath beguiles to an abyss
OF midnight heaven, to inhale
Once more the moons delaying
kiss.
ct know not if their perfumes deep
Glad any other garden dim.
But down a lovers path of sleep
They ever wake and watch for him!
oh, tall white lilies clad in light!
Ghosts of remembered paradise,
Sleeping or sleepless, all the night,
1 bear thee on my eyes,