194 LILAC. 



Some scattering pot-herbs here and there he found, 



Which, cultivated with his daily care, 



And bruised with vervain, were his daily fare. 



DRYDEN. 



THE LILAC. 



The lilac is consecrated to the first emotion of love, 

 because nothing is more delightful than the sensations it 

 produces by its first appearance on the return of spring. 

 The freshness of its verdure, the pliancy of its tender 

 branches, the abundance of its flowers, — their beauty, 

 though brief and transient, — their delicate and varied 

 colours; — all their qualities summon up those sweet emo- 

 tions which enrich beauty, and impart to youth a grace 

 divine. 



Albano was unable to blend, upon the palette which love 

 had confided to him, colours sufficiently soft and delicate 

 to convey the peculiarly beautiful tints which adorn the 

 human face in early youth ; 



The velvet down that spreads the cheek; 



Van Spaendock himself laid down his pencil in despair 

 before a bunch of lilac. Nature seems to have aimed to 

 produce massy bunches of these flowers, every part of 

 which should astonish by its delicacy and its variety. The 

 gradation of colour, from the purple bud to the almost 

 colourless flowers, is the least charm of these beautiful 



