THE DAISY. 



reclined upon golden clouds, appear and open to him the 

 mysterious gates of the fountain of Flora. There, the band 

 of innocents, knowing nought of evil, are continually engaged 

 folding up in sheaths, which cannot be seen by mortal eyes, 

 the germs of flowers w^hich every succeeding Spring shall 

 cause to bloom. Every day, this infantine legion scatters 

 over the earth those delicate buds, as the dews of rosy- 

 fingered morning fall; a countless host of delicate hands 

 inclose the rose in her bud, the grain in its sheath, the 

 huge branches of an oak in a single acorn, and sometimes 

 a whole forest in one invisible seed-vessel. 



" ' We have seen, oh, Malvina ! we have seen the child 

 which you vainly regret, cradled upon a fleecy cloud ; he 

 drew near us, and shed over our fields a harvest of new 

 flowers ! Look, oh Malvina ! among them we distinguish 

 one with a golden disc, surrounded as it Avere with plates 

 of silver ; a light soft purple tips its delicate rays ; poised 

 among the grass by a gentle breeze, one might fancy it to 

 be a little child sporting itself in the verdant mead. Cease 

 from tears, oh, Malvina ! The hero is dead, clad in his 

 armour, and the flower of your bosom has given a new^ 

 flower to the hills of Cromla.' 



"The sweetness of these songs allayed the grief of Malvina ; 

 she took her golden harp and sang in harmony with its 

 notes, the song of the new-born. 



" From that day forth, the maidens of Morven have con- 

 secrated the little Daisy to early infancy. It is, they say, 

 the flower of Innocency ; the flower of the new-born babe." 



Cowper refers to the Daisy as the child's flower : — 



69 



