326 SALMONIA. 



every flower had the bloom and odour of the 

 rose ; and every spray or plant seemed either 

 the poet's laurel, or the civic oak which 

 appeared to offer themselves as wreaths to 

 adorn my throbbing brow. But, alas ! this 

 cannot be; and even you cannot have two 

 springs in life though I have no doubt you 

 have fishing days, in which the feelings of 

 youth return, and that your autumn has a 

 more vernal character than mine. 



POIET. I do not think Halieus had ever 

 any season, except a perpetual and gentle 

 spring ; for the tones of his mind have been 

 always so quiet it has been so little scorched 

 by sunshine, and so little shaken by winds 

 that, I think, it may be compared to that 

 sempivernal climate fabled of the Hespe- 

 rides, where the same trees produced at once 

 buds, leaves, blossoms, and fruits. 



HAL. Nay, my friends ! spare me a 

 little, spare my gray hairs. I have not per- 

 haps abused my youth so much as some of 

 my friends, but all things that you have 

 known, I have known; and if I have not 

 been so much scorched by the passions from 



