CEDAR TRKK. 83 



That far abroad her dainty odours threw ; 

 'Mongst all the daughters of proud Lebanon, 

 Her match in beauty was not any one. 

 Shortly, within her inmost pith there bred 

 A little wicked worm " 



Solomon makes this honest confession : 



" The vegetable world, each plant and tree, 

 Its seed, its name, its nature, its degree, 

 I am allowed, as Fame reports, to know ; 

 From the fair cedar, on the craggy brow 

 Of Lebanon, nodding supremely tall, 

 To creeping moss and hyssop on the wall 

 Yet, just and conscious to myself, I find 

 A thousand doubts oppose the searching mind." 



PRIOR. 



The Cedar is usually described either as lofty, far- 

 spreading, straight, or as a sacred tree : 



Cedars here, 



Coeval with the sky-crowned mountain's self, 

 Spread wide their giant arms." 



MASON. 



The cedar, whose top mates the highest cloud, 

 Whilst his old father Lebanon grows proud 

 Of such a child, and his vast body laid 

 Out many a mile, enjoys the filial shade." 



CHURCHILL. 



" Bear me, Pomona ! to thy citron groves ; 

 To where the lemon and the piercing lime, 

 With the deep orange, glowing through the green, 

 Their lighter glories blend. Lay me reclined 

 Beneath the spreading tamarind, that shakes, 

 Fanned by the breeze, its fever-cooling fruit. 

 Deep in the night the massy locust sheds, 



