180 FLORA'S LEXICON. 



OSE, WHITE. The god of silence was 

 represented under the form of a young man, 

 with one finger placed on his lips, and hold- 

 ing a white rose in the other hand. We 

 are told that Love gave him this rose to j 

 secure his favour. The ancients sculptured I 

 ^ a rose over the doors of their festive halls , 

 to interdict the guests from repeating anything that was spoken. 

 Byron has rendered it sacred to the silence of the tomb. In the 

 " Bride of Abydos" he says that, o'er the tomb of Zuleika 



A single rose is shedding 



Its lovely lustre, meek and pale : 

 It looks as planted by despair — 



So white, so faint, the slightest gale 

 Might whirl the leaves on high. 



SILENCE. 



Still-born Silence, thou that art 

 Floodgate of the deeper heart ; 

 Offspring of a heavenly kind ; 

 Frost o' th' mouth and thaw o' th' mind; 

 Secrecy's confidant, and he 

 That makes religion mystery; 

 Admiration's speaking'st tongue — 

 Leave thy desert shades, among 

 Reverend hermits' hallow'd cells, 

 Where retired'st devotion dwells; 

 With thy enthusiasms come; 

 Seize this maid, and make her dumb. 



Flecknoe. 



You know my wishes ever yours did meet : 

 If I be silent, 't is no more but fear 

 That I should say too little when I speak. 



Carew. 



