THE DAISY. 



THE DAISY {Bcllis pcrcnnis). — INNOCENCE. 



Wordsworth calls the Daisy "the Poet's darling," and 

 not without reason. By a prose poet it has been made the 

 emblem of Innocence ; here we have an account of the 

 cause of this : — 



"Malvina, bent over the tomb of Fingal, bewailed the 

 valiant Oscar, and also Oscar's son, wdio died ere he saw 

 the light. 



" The virgins of Morven, to allay Malvina's grief, often 

 came about her, honouring by their songs the death of the 

 hero and the death of the new-born. 



" * The hero is fallen,' they sang ; ' he is fallen ! and the 

 sound of his arms has re-echoed over the plain ; sickness, 

 which takes away courage ; old age, which discredits the 

 deeds of the brave, can no more reach him ; he is fallen ! 

 and the sound of his arms has re-echoed over the plain.' 



" ' Admitted to the palace of the shades where his ances- 

 tors dwell, he drinks with them of the cup of immortality. 

 O beloved of Oscar ! no longer shed tears of sorrow ; the 

 hero is fallen! he is fallen! and the sound of his arms 

 has re-echoed over the plain.' 



" Then with softer voice, they said again to her : * Your 

 child, who never saw the light, has never known the bitter- 

 ness of life ; his young soul, borne aloft on glittering wings, 

 reaches with the first dawn of day the mansions of light. 

 The souls of children, A\ho, as well as he, ha\c, without 

 knowing sorrow, burst through the fetters of niortal life, 



68 



