SPRING AND THE POETS. 459 



celebrated the Feasts of Venus early in April. The idea of love 

 seems to have been inseparably linked with the season, not less 

 amongst the multitude, than the most refined and exalted genius. 

 The fourth Ode of Horace was as truly descriptive of the ob- 

 servances of May in our country two centuries ago, as of those of the 

 Feasts of Flora or Venus. 



" Now icy winter melts in vernal gales, 



And grateful zephyrs fill the spreading sails. 

 No more the rustic labourer loves his fire, 

 No more the lowing herds their stalls desire. 

 While Earth the richest of her verdure yields, 

 Nor hoary frosts now crisp the smiling fields : 

 And joyously through all the verdant meads, 

 Beneath the rising moon, fair Venus leads 

 Her graceful dance, and with her laughing train 

 Of nymphs and modest graces fills the plain." 



The same notion of Love and Spring is presented by Lucretius, in the 

 beginning of the first Book of the Nature of Things. 



" Kind Venus ! glory of the blest abodes ; 



Parent of Rome chief joy of men and Gods ! 

 At thy approach, great goddess, straight remove 

 Whatever things are rough and foes to love. 

 When first the gentle Spring begins t' inspire 

 Soft wishes, melting thoughts, and gay desire, 

 And warm Favonius fans the amorous fire.' 7 



And thus it must ever be from the beginning of the world to the 

 final consummation of its destiny, Spring has been and will be a 

 period of rejoicing and of love. The affections will ever expand 

 under the genial influence of reviving nature; and the poets, as her 

 great high-priests, must in all climes, in all ages, and in all stages of 

 civilization, celebrate its coming in one universal language the 

 language of love. 



We ourselves, though no poet, never walk out in the gushing 

 spring sunlight, but the " buds, the blossoms, and the flowers'* which 

 are bursting into life, and smiling in their young beauty, fill us with 

 the most profound sensation of love of love to our fellows, and of 

 love to Him whose goodness thus shows itself in boundless profusion. 

 The conviction upon our mind is, from all that we see, that G od is 

 love ; and that one of the most grateful sacrifices which can be offered 

 up to Him, is to have our hearts filled with the impulses naturally 

 springing from his creations. 



