210 FLOWERS AND FOLKS. 



manners. As every one sees, people in high 

 station, especially if they chance to possess 

 attractive social qualities, are of necessity 

 compelled to discountenance everything like 

 careless familiarity, even from those with 

 whom they may formerly have been most 

 intimate. They must always stand more or 

 less upon ceremony, and never be handled 

 without gloves. So it is with the queen of 

 flowers. Its thorns not only serve it as 

 a protection, but are for its admirers ' an 

 excellent discipline in forbearance. They 

 make it easier for us, as Emerson says, to 

 "love the wood rose and leave it on the 

 stalk." In addition to which I am moved 

 to say that the rose, like the holly, illustrates 

 a truth too seldom insisted upon ; namely, 

 that people are more justly condemned for 

 the absence of all good qualities than for 

 the presence of one or two bad ones. 



Some such plea as this, though with a 

 smaller measure of assurance, I should make 

 in behalf of plants like the barberry and 

 the bramble. The latter, in truth, some- 

 times acts as if it were not so much fighting 

 us off as drawing us on. Leaning far for- 

 ward and stretching forth its arms, it but- 



