A PASTORAL 139 



6. Explain the paradox, 'He is oft the wisest man who is not 

 wise at all.' (Write out a list of paradoxes such as, ' He is all 

 faults who has no fault at all,' 'The child is father of the man,' 

 ' The more he gave away the more he had,' &c.) 



7. What botanical (or * Nature ') knowledge does Wordsworth 

 reveal in his description of the broom ? (Write out the facts 

 in a list, such as the effect of thaw after frost, the natural dis- 

 semination of seeds, butterfly wings in the broom blossom, &c.) 



8. Which do you consider the most poetical stanza ? Why ? 



THE BRAMBLE, OR BLACKBERRY 



(Rubus fruticosus) 



THE Bramble is misnamed, if we accept its original The 

 meaning of ' the little Broom ' ; for it has no con- #*wnWe 

 nexion, botanically considered, with the leguminous a s a worth- 

 broom, but belongs to the rose tribe, with alliance less shrub - 

 therefore to the apple, the briar, the may, and the 

 meadow-sweet. Its corolla is, indeed, a small white 

 rose, occasionally tinged with pink ; and, even among 

 the aristocratic representatives of its tribe, ' all a-grow- 

 ing, all a- blowing ', it c need not be ashamed to show 

 10 its satin-threaded flowers '. But its beauty seems to 

 have been a late discovery. In the Bible the plant 

 finds no more favour than the dog ; appearing there 

 as one of the emblems and evidences of the primal 

 curse : ' Do men gather grapes of brambles, or figs of 

 thistles ? ' And in Jotham's apologue it figures as an 

 execrable contrast to the olive, the fig, and the vine. 

 Hence it came to be spoken of as a weak, spreading, 

 prickly shrub of rapid growth and speedy decay, 

 hurtful as to its thorns, sour and worthless as to its 



