104 THE EVENING PRIMROSE. 



I am conscious of having invested this particular 

 flower, fronn my very childhood. To me, the eve- 

 ning primrose does not so much represent an indi- 

 vidual, as a sentiment; but this assuredly took its 

 rise from its association with my father's image, 

 who, in all that concerned me, presented the most 

 complete personification of dehcate sympathy that 

 I have ever witnessed among men. This was the 

 more remarkable, as his mind was particularly 

 masculine, his every taste and pursuit far removed 

 from what was frivolous or idle. Yet was his 

 soaring intellect perpetually bowed, his mighty 

 faculties continually brought down, to reach the 

 level of a weak and wayward child, so as to render 

 his companionship the main ingredient of my hap- 

 piness ; while others, far my superiors in age and 

 understanding, stood aloof, and wondered at my 

 delighting in what they regarded with no little awe. 

 Certain I am, that at no period of my life have I 

 met, in any human being, with a sympathy so full, 

 so tender, so unfailing, as that of him who left me 

 early to buffet with the storms of life ; and the 

 evening primrose always is, always will be, a me- 

 mento of what I shall no more enjoy on earth. 



The flower too, is an apt emblem of what I would 

 describe. It comes, when the fellowship of many 

 sunshiny friends is withdrawn. The gayest have 

 disappeared from my garden before it is ripe for 

 blossoming ; and those of its contemporaries who 



