230 On the Campus 



cumstance might well lead to the suspicion that the poet 

 was a gardener. 



We must not forget to notice, too, in this connection, 

 that carnations i.e., pinks are remarkable for the 

 great number of their varieties. We have, if I may so 

 say, pinks of every color, from white to crimson, even 

 brown it is said. This was true in Shakespeare's time, 

 if one may trust Gerarde again. He says, ' ' A great and 

 large volume would not suffice to write of every one at 

 large considering how infinite they are, and how every 

 year the climate and country bringeth forth new sorts 

 and such as have not heretofore been written of. ' ' 



Another beautiful passage, in which the poet has un- 

 wittingly hit upon scientific truth, is found in Sonnet V, 

 the last ten lines. The beauty of the passage as a whole 

 is so remarkable that the delicate touches in particular 

 lines are apt to be overlooked : 



"For never-resting time leads summer on 



To hideous winter and confounds him there; 

 Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone, 



Beauty o'ersnowed and bareness everywhere: 

 Then, were not summer's distillation left, 

 A liquid prisoner pent in wall of glass, 

 Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft, 



Nor it nor no remembrance what it was: 

 But flowers distill 'd though they with winter meet, 



Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet." 



The reference here, no doubt, is to a perfume-bottle, a 

 vial filled with the essence of the flower. 1 This is the 



i Sir Sidney Lee, WorTcs of William Shakespeare, cites here Sid- 

 ney 's Arcadia, bk. iii, p. 246, ed. 1674. 



