Section 70 On Perfumery. I.1
The2 exquisite pleasure we enjoy from the smell of sweet flowers is3 alone sufficient to account for the love of perfumery. Flowers pass away4 so quickly that we naturally desire to preserve their sweetness5 as6 long as we can, and in this our perfumers succeed7 admirably. The perfume8 of most flowers depends upon an oil, which9 is peculiar to the plant, almost every sweet-scented10 plant having its own peculiar oil; and, what is of11 more importance: these oils belong to a class called12 essential or volatile, because they become13 volatile when14 heated.
Notes
1 Ueber Parfümerien.
2 Say ‘the great enjoyment which the smell (Duft, m.) of sweet (wohlriechend) flowers affords (gewähren) us’. Place the pron. ‘us’ immediately after the rel. pron.
3 is — perfumery = explains sufficiently (zur Genüge) our love for perfumery.
4 to pass away, verwelken.
5 Wohlgeruch, m.
6 as — can, so lange wie möglich. For the position of the verbs see App. § 19.
7 to succeed, gelingen, v. intr. (used with sein), governs the dative of the person; as—
He succeeds admirably in this. Dies gelingt ihm vortrefflich.
Construe the above clause accord. to the preceding example; perfumer, Parfümeur.
8 ‘perfume’, here = scent, Duft, m.
9 The relat. clause ‘which — plant’ is best rendered by the attributive construction, as explained in S. 48, N. 6; peculiar, eigentümlich.
10 odorous, wohlriechend; its own particular oil, ihr besonderes Öl. The clause ‘almost — oil’ must be construed accord. to S. 30, N. 4.
11 of — importance = still more important.
12 Say ‘which one calls essential (ätherisch) or volatile (flüchtig) oils’.
13 to become volatile, sich verflüchtigen.
14 when heated = when they are heated (erwärmen). Comp. S. 27, N. 7.