66 NATURAL HISTORY 



" Ye evergreens, around the tomb 

 Of Sophocles, your osiers braid, 

 And, ivy, spread thy pensive gloom, 

 To form above the bard a shade. 



" And intertwine the blushing rose, 

 And gentle vine your leaves among, 

 Thus, gemm'd with beauties, shall your boughs 

 Prove emblems of his graceful song." 



In the Pastorals of Theocritus, and the morning 

 song of Moschus, the flowers bloom and the trees 

 whisper. "What lent the charm to much of Yirgil's 

 poetry the Bucolics and the Georgics ? His 

 sweetest strains are mingled with the hum of bees, 

 and the song of birds. 



" Behold ! yon bordering fence of sallow trees 

 Is fraught with flowers, the flowers are fraught with bees. 

 The busy bees, with a soft murmuring strain, 

 Invite to gentle sleep the laboring swain ; 

 While from the leafy elm the turtle-dove 

 Tells in soft notes the story of its love." 



Thus through that wonderful poem, written at the 

 command of his sovereign, has lie presented a pic- 



