212 PROSERPINA. 



word I ask from the lips of the children of Florence 

 and Rome, may enable them better to praise the 

 flowers that are chosen by the hand of Matilda,* 

 and bloom around the tomb of Vergil. 



23. Now in this first example of nomenclature, 

 the Master-name, being pure Greek, may easily be 

 accepted by Greek children, remembering that 

 certain also of their own poets, if they did not 

 call the flower a Grace itself, at least thought of it 

 as giving gladness to the Three in their dances.t 

 But for French children the word 'Grace' has been 

 doubly and trebly corrupted ; first, by entirely false 

 theological scholarship, mistaking the ' Favour ' or 

 Grace done by God to good men, for the ' Miseri- 

 cordia,' or mercy, shown by Him to bad ones ; and 

 so, in practical life, finally substituting 'Grace' as 

 a word of extreme and mortal prayer, for ' Merci,' 

 and of late using ' Merci ' in a totally ridiculous 

 and perverted power, for the giving of thanks, (or 

 refusal of offered good) : while the literally derived 

 word ' Charite ' has become, in the modern mind, 

 a gift, whether from God or man, only to the 

 wretched, never to the happy : and lastly, ' Grace ' 

 in its physical sense has been perverted, by their 



* " Cantando, e sceglicndo fior di fiore 

 Onde era picta tutta la sua via." 



Furg., xxviii. 35. 

 ■j" " koX OtoioL Teplrvd." 



