230 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 



" But after comes a steadier light, 

 A long and lasting dream; 

 Like the full heaven which the sun 

 Flings down on life's dark stream. 



•' There's a love that in the soul 

 Burns silent and alone, 

 Though all of earthly happiness 

 Has long, too long been flown. 



" And she, amid her gladder friends, 

 Seems pensive on the strand, 

 And keeps her fairy bark unlaunched 

 Beside her trembling hand." 



L. E. L. 



If any mortal man could become a participator in the prayers and 

 soul breathings of these Hindoo girls when about to commit their 

 flowers to the stream, he would be incomparably blessed. The same 

 superstition prevails in Russia. There they collect certain plants, and 

 watch their decay, to obtain omens of the safe return of absent friends. 

 Von Teitz tells us that, after the feast of Whitsuntide, the young 

 Russian maidens seek the banks of the Neva, and fling in its waters 

 wreaths of flowers. These are tokens of affection to absent friends. 

 Our own modern Anacreon thus addresses the river in which his sup- 

 posed wreaths are cast : — 



" Flow on, thou shining river ; 



But ere thou reach the sea, 

 Seek Ella's bow'r, and give her 



The wreaths I fling o'er thee, 

 And tell her thus : — If she'll be mine, 



The current of our lives shall be 

 With joys along their course to shine 



Like those sweet flowers on thee." 



And who shall say that there are not kind angels ever hovering 

 above us to bear these missives, and to breathe our hopes, and wishes, 

 and dearest aspirations into the souls of those we love, and surround- 

 ing them with sweet images and recollections ; and bringing in return 

 the sighs they heave, and the tears they shed for us. Truly the vi- 

 sions that sometimes surround us, and the voices that sometimes 

 whisper in our ears, would seem to be wafted from afar, and to come 

 to us laden with sweet odours, and holy breathings of love and affection » 



