" the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where 

 it comes and goes like the warbling of music), than in 

 the hand ; therefore, nothing is more fit for that de- 

 light, than to know what be the flowers and plants 

 that do best perfume the air; the flower, which above 

 all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the 

 violet;* next to that is the musk rose, then the straw- 

 berry-leaves, dying with a most excellent cordial 

 smell ; then sweet briar, then wall-flowers, which are 



* So thought Sir W. Raleigh ; 



Sweet violets, love's paradise, that spread 



Your gracious odours .... 

 Upon the gentle wing of some calm-breathing wind, 

 That plays amidst the plain. 



The lines in Twelfth Night we all recollect : 



That strain again; — it had a dying fall : 

 O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south 

 That breathes upon a bank of violets, 

 Stealing and giving odour. 



That these flowers were the most favourite ones of Shakspeare, 

 there can be little doubt — Perditta fondly calls them 



sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes 



Or Cytherea's breath. 



When Petrarch first saw Laura : " elle avait une robe verte, sa co- 

 leur favorite, parsem£e de violettes, la plus humble des fleurs." 

 — Childe Harold thus paints this flower : 



The sweetness of the violet's deep blue eyes 



(Kiss'd by the breath of heaven) seems colour'd by its skies. 



