128 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



desert to a mirage of green olives and living oases ! How often, when 

 disease has wasted the frame, and anxiety and suffering have well nigh 

 done their work, the sufferer awaits calmly the approaching dissolu- 

 tion, and stands, pausing on the hrink of another world in majestic 

 hope and confidence — the joys, sorrows, and fears of life's fevered 

 dream all unheeded and banished from the memory — and the scenes 

 and associations of childhood come flooding upon the memory in all 

 their pristine freshness and beauty ! The soul, as it grows near to 

 God, becomes more pure and holy ; and the love of flowers breaks 

 forth in a new and tenfold beauty, even when the body is ready for 

 its rest ; for flowers are antetypes of the angelic, tokens of the perfect, 

 the peaceful, and the just. 



It was the beloved and much lamented L. E. L. who sung — 



" We like the mockery that flowers 

 Exhibit on the mound 

 Beneath which lie the happy hours 

 Hearts dreamt, but never found," 



It was the gentle-hearted Keats — the pure soul — 



"Who grew 

 Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished, 

 And fed with true-love tears instead of dew — " 



who said, when on the couch of death, and before he passed into the 

 skies like the dew-drop exhaled from the bosom of a flower, that he 

 " felt the daisies already growing over him." And so, too, Carrington, 

 who suffered the disappointments and regrets of a weary and a toilsome 

 life, was compelled to say, that 



" Songs may cease. 

 Though carolled in the faithless Spring, and Hope 

 May prove a flatterer, and Love may plume 

 His wings for flight, and every flower that blows 

 Be blasted by the tempest's breath." 



Mrs. Hemans believed that " the fine passion for flowers is the only 

 one which long sickness leaves untouched with its chilling influence. 

 Often, during this weary illness of mine, have I looked upon new 

 books with indifference, when, if a friend has sent me a few flowers, 

 my licart has leaped up to their dreamy hues and odours, with a 



