HOW TO READ THE HEART. 141 



frosts ; but it resumes its living growth as soon as it becomes 

 sensible of the first rays of the spring-time sun. 



It is at the moment of nature's awakening, about "the 

 solemn Easter-tide," that this " sweet nursling of the vernal 

 year " displays all the simple coquettishness of its chaplet of 

 flowers, that chaplet which has also procured for it the name 

 of the tiny " Marguerite," that is, " little pearl," a name 

 which the French have adopted from the Latin Margarita. 



Here let us pause, and propound a question. 



How would you propose to test the real character, the 

 genuine nature, of friend or acquaintance ? 



Your answers, dear readers (believe me, I hear them 

 clearly !), are very various. Some of you say, that the best 

 means of sounding the depths of the human heart is by 

 bringing before it a misery which needs to be relieved. 

 Others recommend the bestowal of a benefit. But such 

 processes of analysis appear to me far from being infallible ; 

 too wide a margin is left for the operation of sentiments of 

 pride or vanity. Why not conduct the man whose real 

 character you wish to discover into a meadow enamelled 

 with sparkling daisies ? Thus you would impose upon nature 

 the task of interrogating him. If he manifest feelings of 

 indifference, you will do well to regard him with suspicion : 

 take care how you admit him into your intimacy; for his 

 heart must be cold, and his mind troubled 



" The man that takes not daisies to his soul 

 Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils." 



But to return to our daisy. Observe how, by its organs, 



