Section 70. On Perfumery⁠. I

The⁠ exquisite pleasure we enjoy from the smell of sweet flowers is⁠ alone sufficient to account for the love of perfumery. Flowers pass away⁠ so quickly that we naturally desire to preserve their sweetness⁠ as⁠ long as we can, and in this our perfumers succeed⁠ admirably. The perfume⁠ of most flowers depends upon an oil, which⁠ is peculiar to the plant, almost every sweet-scented⁠ plant having its own peculiar oil; and, what is of⁠ more importance: these oils belong to a class called⁠ essential or volatile, because they become⁠ volatile when⁠ heated.

Ueber Parfümerien.

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.

is — perfumery = explains sufficiently (zur Genüge) our love for perfumery.

to pass away, verwelken.

Wohlgeruch, m.

as — can, so lange wie möglich. For the position of the verbs see App. § 19.

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.

‘perfume’, here = scent, Duft, m.

The relat. clause ‘which — plant’ is best rendered by the attributive construction, as explained in S. 48, N. 6; peculiar, eigentümlich.

odorous, wohlriechend; its own particular oil, ihr besonderes Öl. The clause ‘almost — oil’ must be construed accord. to S. 30, N. 4.

of — importance = still more important.

Say ‘which one calls essential (ätherisch) or volatile (flüchtig) oils’.

to become volatile, sich verflüchtigen.

when heated = when they are heated (erwärmen). Comp. S. 27, N. 7.