FLOWER-GARDENING. 11 



sive sweets, while herself retires from sight, seeking rathei to 

 administer pleasure than to win admiration ; emblem, expres- 

 sive emblem, of those modest virtues which delight to bloom 

 in obscurity. There are several kinds of Violets, but the fra- 

 grant, both blue and white, are the earliest. Shakspeare com- 

 pares an exquisitely sweet strain of music to the delicious scent 

 of this flower: 



" Oh I it came o'er my ear like the sweet South, 

 That breathes upon a bank of Yiolet, 

 Stealing and giving odor." 



The devout Hervey, in his admonitions to those who indulge 

 in sloth, has thrown out the following sublime ideas : What 

 sweets are those which so agreeably salute my nostrils ? They 

 are the breath of the flowers, the incense of the gardens. How 

 liberally does the Jasmine dispense her odoriferous riches ! 

 How deliciously has the Woodbine embalmed this morning walk ! 

 The air is all perfume. And is not this another most engaging 

 argument to forsake the bed of sloth ? Who would be involved 

 in senseless slumbers, while so many breathing sweets invite him 

 to a feast of fragrancy, especially considering that the advancing 

 day will exhale the volatile dainties ? A fugitive treat they are, 

 prepared only for the wakeful and industrious. Whereas, when 

 the sluggard lifts his heavy eyes, the flowers will droop, their 

 fine sweets be dissipated, and, instead of this refreshing humidi- 

 ty, the air will become a kind of liquid fire. 



With this very motive, heightened by a representation of the 

 most charming pieces of morning scenery, the parent of man- 

 kind awakes his lovely consort. There is such a delicacy in the 

 choice, and so much life in the description of these rural 

 images, that I cannot excuse myself without repeating the 

 whole passage. Whisper it, some friendly genius, in the ear of 

 every one who is now sunk in sleep, and lost to all these refined 

 gratifications ! 



Our subject is so enchanting that we had inadvertently wan- 

 dered from the path we first entered. We now retrace our 



