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C4, 



I. VIOLA. 



ing of her own love, and the hidden passion of it, un- 

 speakable ; nor is Milton without some purpose of using 

 it as an emblem of love, mourning, but, in both cases, 

 the subdued and quiet hue of the flower as an actual tint 

 of colour, and the strange force and life of it as a part 

 of light, are felt to their uttermost. 



And observe, also, that both of the poets contrast the 

 violet, in its softness, with the intense marking of the 

 pansy. Milton makes the opposition directly 



" the pansy, freaked with jet, 

 The glowing violet." 



Shakspeare shows yet stronger sense of the difference, in 

 the ''purple with Love's wound" of the pansy, while 

 the violet is sweet with Love's hidden life, and sweeter 

 than the lids of Juno's eyes. 



Whereupon, we may perhaps consider with ourselves 

 a little, what the difference is between a violet and a 

 pansy \ 



13. Is, I say. and was, and is to come, in spite of 

 florists, who try to make pansies round, instead of pen- 

 tagonal ; and of the wise classifying people, who say that 

 violets and pansies are the same thing and that neither 

 of them are of much interest ! As, for instance, Dr. 

 Linclley in his ' Ladies' Botany.' 



Violets sweet Violets, and Pansies, or Heartsease, 

 represent a small family, with the structure of which 

 you should be familiar ; more, however, for the sake of 



