healthful; peaceful, gentle and hearty."

There is no article of common use about which so little is
popularly known, or of which "we know so many things which are
not so." The very names of the various kinds of tea which we use
are mysteries of meaning to those who have not made special
researches into the subject. And the cause of the distinctions in
the qualities of different teas, as of black and green, are still
matters of uncertainty and controversy among many dealers of
teas, as well as among unscientific travelers and some untraveled
scientists. The enthusiastic collector of writings upon tea by
self qualified experts, will find himself involved in a maze of
contradictory assertions and opinions from which there is no
escape save by the exercise of judicial powers, by an independent
exercise of his own judgment, in separating truth from error. And
unless he is a proficient in physiology and chemistry, he will
find himself baffled at last, because several important
scientific questions concerning Tea are still unsolved by
adequate authority.

Then there are otherwise sane persons who profess to discover in
the habitual use of tea by whole nations a cause of national
deterioration. We record the fact as one of the curiosities of
mental perversity in an age of general intelligence.

How the inestimable qualities which lie latent in the green leaf
of the Tea tree or bush were discovered and developed by the
Chinese is one of those mysteries which we shall never solve. For
it is a remarkable fact that neither the green leaf of the tea
plant, nor the tea leaf dried without mans agency, conveys to