THE BLUE BELLS 39 



is over, it fills the vases of aesthetic maidens, 

 adding to, and borrowing the delicacy of the 

 lighter grasses which tremble beside it. Thus it 

 has all the claims of its tenderer loveliness, of its 

 wider-spread, arid its closer sympathy with the 

 genius of the land to be recalled, whenever Scotland 

 is named. 



But why worry oneself between two such fair 

 claimants ? Why not, with honest Cassio, confess 

 each to be more excellent than the other ? A queen 

 may surely reign in Spain while another reigns in 

 England, and the earth prove large enough for 

 both. In like manner two fairy queens may reign 

 at once, so long as one holds her court on the moor 

 and the other in the woods. Why not pay devoirs 

 to the hare bell in the open, and change our 

 allegiance on passing beneath the branches. Two 

 fairy queens can reign in different places at the 

 same time, and all beauty is not gathered into one 

 bell, any more than into one face. 



But even this is not a full statement of the case. 

 Both are not abroad on the earth, even in their 

 different scenes, at the same time. Then what 

 excuse is there for rivalry ? Who wants a cessation 

 in the reign of beauty, or even an interregnum ? 



Let us divide the kingdom between them, mak- 



