176 FLORA'S LEXICON. 



OSE BUD, WHITE. Before the breath of || 

 love animated the world, all the roses were 

 white, and every heart was insensible. 

 Herrick says, that 



As Cupid danced among 

 The Gods, he down the nectar flung; 

 Which on the white rose being shed, 

 Made it for ever after red. 



Another poet makes the rose to say, 



'Twas from Love I borrow'd, too, 

 My sweet perfume, my purple hue. 



THE HEART THAT KNOWS NOT LOVE. 



Thou, my love, art sweeter far than balmy 

 Incense in the purple smoke ; pure and 

 Unspotted as the cleanly ermine, ere 

 The hunter sullies her with his pursuit; 

 Soft as her skin ; chaste as th' Arabian bird 

 That wants a sex to woo, or as the dead, 

 That are divorced from warmth, from objects, 

 And from thought. 



DAVENANT. 



Oh! she is colder than the mountain's snow. 

 To such a subtle purity she's wrought, 

 She's pray'd and fasted to a walking thought: 

 She's an enchanted feast, most fair to sight, 

 And starves the appetite she does invite ; 

 Flies from the touch of sense, and if you dare 

 To name but love, she vanishes to air. 



CROWN. 



In thy fair brow there's such a legend writ 

 Of chastity, as blinds the adulterous eye-: 

 Not the mountain ice, 

 Congeal'd to crystals, is so frosty chaste, 

 As thy victorious soul, which conquers man, 

 And man's proud tyrant-passion. 



DRYDEN. 



