n>orn of a xn^ousattb IRosee 



alighting next morning on the Kubbet es Sakra in Jerusalem, 

 from the sacred sweat of the Prophet's forehead falling to 

 earth, sprang white roses, while from the magic sweat of 

 Al Borak, yellow roses came. Question a reverent Moslem 

 about this and his answer will be the same to you that it was 

 to me, for it never varies. He will lift his eyebrows with 

 surprise and ask, "Why not !" Why not, indeed! 



And contrary she is, this beautiful minx. She will cry 

 you war or cry you peace, stand emblem for heathen Aphro- 

 dite and Christian Mary in the same breath and with the 

 same sang-froid with which she presents a bud and a thorn 

 on the selfsame branch. That Venus is frequently sym- 

 bolised by the rose is too well recognised to require more than 

 passing mention, and that the rose is as much Mary's flower 

 as blue is the symbolic colour for her cloak. 



Are you a Modem? The rose is for beauty. Does not 

 Lord Tennyson make his lover say in "Maud" 



" Rosy is the west, rosy is the south; 

 Roses are her cheeks, and a rose her mouth." 



But then, again, are you an Ancient, a very solemn and 

 sanctified Ancient? If so, do we not find Confucius discuss- 

 ing in the Analects, questions of beauty, and quoting such 

 very un-Confucian lines as these : 



" Dimples playing in a witching smile, 

 Beautiful eyes, so dark, so bright! 

 Oh, and her face may be thought the while 



Coloured by art, red rose on white!" / \ 



\ 



x i % iL i A \ 1 t k.^1 k LJU. 



