132 MAY. 



what eagerness do very infants grasp at flowers ! 

 As they become older they would live for ever 

 amongst them. They bound about in the flowery 

 meadows like young fawns; they gather all they 

 come near ; they collect heaps ; they sit among 

 them, and sort them, and sing over them, and caress 

 them, till they perish in their grasp. 



This sweet May morning 



The children are pulling 



On every side, 



In a thousand valleys far and wide, 



Fresh flowers. 



WORDSWORTH. 



We see them coming wearily into the towns and 

 villages with their pinafores full, and with posies 

 half as large as themselves. We trace them in 

 shady lanes, in the grass of far-off fields by the 

 treasures they have gathered and have left behind, 

 lured on by others still brighter. As they grow up 

 to maturity, they assume, in their eyes, new charac- 

 ters and beauties. Then they are strewn around 

 them, the poetry of the earth. They become invested 

 by a multitude of associations with innumerable 

 spells of power over the human heart; they are 

 to us memorials of the joys, sorrows, hopes, and 

 triumphs of our forefathers ; they are, to all nations, 

 the emblems of youth in its loveliness and purity. 



The ancient Greeks, whose souls pre-eminently 

 sympathized with the spirit of grace and beauty in 

 every thing, were enthusiastic in their love, and 



