." ' 



BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 23 



ihis far-famed Dial of Flora, which I wish 

 you would read from her book. 



Li. 'Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours 



As they floated in light away, 

 By the opening and the folding flowers 

 That laugh to the summer day. 



Thus had each moment its own rich hue, 



And its graceful cup and bell, 

 In whose colored vase might sleep the dew, 



Like a pearl in an ocean shell. 



To such sweet signs, might the time have flown 

 In a golden current on, ^ 



Ere from the garden, man's first abode, 

 The glorious guests were gone. 



So might the days have been brightly told, 



Those days of song and dreams, 

 When shepherds gathered their flocks of old 



By the blue Arcadian streams. 



So in those isles of delight that rest 



Far off in a breezeless main, 

 Which many a bark with a weary gueti, 



Has sought, but still in vain. 



Vet is not life in its real flight, 



Marked thus, even thus on earth, 

 By the closing of one hope's delight 



And another's gentle birth ? 



Oh let us live, so that flower by flower, 



Shutting in turn may leave, 

 A lingerer still for the sunset hour, 



A charm for the shaded eve. 



