Herbs and the Earth

Beston (1888-1968), a New England naturalist and children's book author whose ``chosen home'' from 1944 on was a farm in Maine, here writes with an almost Proustian dedication about herbs as human ``familiars'' of ancient lineage. ``The green life of earth is a deeper life than we know,'' he avows, and walks a leisurely path through species including sage, marjoram, basil and other mainstays. Always exercising a ``gardener's musing mind,'' the author gently but firmly reproaches ``the age in which we live'' for having ``lost the earth,'' and exchanged this for a ``vulgar curse of gigantism,'' with gardens ``fallen into so impersonal a rut.'' Writing as an appreciator of ``subtleties of light'' and the revelations of ``a simple leaf,'' Beston pens a hymn in prose, out of print for a dozen years, of unusual depth and eloquence. BOMC alternate. (June)