Pigs, marjoram, and roses

Meaning

Pigs smelling marjoram and entry to the garden of roses are proverbial images for indiscriminate exposure of precious knowledge. The plants are not covertly established ingredients by their appearance in the analogy.

II.4.27 defends concealment by distinguishing worthy inquiry from careless curiosity. Nature's veils and the penalty attached to divulging mysteries frame the floral comparison: fragrant value can be mishandled or unappreciated. The author's elitism should remain attributed to him, not adopted as a judgment on present readers. The image also differs from the pearls discussed earlier; shared value does not make all these concrete objects chemical synonyms.

The English preserves marjoram and roses rather than flattening both into “secrets.” Their lexical specificity matters because the argument works through recognizable contrasting responses to value.