EMBALM, v.i. To cheat vegetation by locking up the gases upon which it feeds. By embalming their dead and thereby deranging the natural balance between animal and vegetable life, the Egyptians made their once fertile and populous country barren and incapable of supporting more than a meagre crew. The modern metallic burial casket is a step in the same direction, and many a dead man who ought now to be ornamenting his neighbour's lawn as a tree, or enriching his table as a bunch of radishes, is doomed to a long inutility. We shall get him after awhile if we are spared, but in the meantime, the violet and rose are languishing for a nibble at his gluteus maximus. Ambrose Bierce
About This Quote

In this quote, Thomas De Quincey suggests that the Egyptians were stealing the gases which the vegetation needed for life, by putting their dead in boxes. In his view, they were killing their trees and flowers by depriving them of the nutrients they required. He continues, saying that with each generation, those who carelessly embalmed their dead robbed a garden of a plant or two until one day they would no longer be able to support many people.

Source: The Unabridged Devils Dictionary

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