180 FLORA'S LEXICON. 



OSE, WHITE. The god of silence was 

 represented under the form of a young man, 

 with one finger placed on his lips, and hold- 

 ing a white rose in the other hand. We 

 are told that Love gave him this rose to 

 secure his favour. The ancients sculptured 

 a rose over the doors of their festive halls 

 to interdict the guests from repeating anything that was spoken. 

 Byron has rendered it sacred to the silence of the tomb. In the 

 " Bride of Abydos" he says that, o'er the tomb of Zuleika 



A single rose is shedding 



Its lovely lustre, meek and pale : 

 It looks as planted by despair 



So white, so faint, the slightest gale 

 Might whirl the leaves on high. 



SILENCE. 



Still-born Silence, thou that art 

 Floodgate of the deeper heart ; 

 Offspring of a heavenly kind ; 

 Frost o' th' mouth and thaw o' th' mind; 

 Secrecy's confidant, and he 

 That makes religion mystery; 

 Admiration's speaking'st tongue 

 Leave thy desert shades, among 

 Reverend hermits' hallow'd cells, 

 Where retired'st devotion dwells; 

 With thy enthusiasms come; 

 Seize this maid, and make her dumb. 



FLECKNOE. 



You know my wishes ever yours did meet: 

 If I be silent, 't is no more but fear 

 That I should say too little when I speak. 



CAREW. 



