A CHAPTER ON ROSES. 27 



fections of all ranks, classes, and conditions of men. The poet, 

 amid all the perfections of the parterre, still prefers the scent of the 

 woods and the air of freedom about the original blossom, and says 



" Far dearer to me is the wild flower that grows 

 Unseen by the brook where in shadow it flows." 



The cabbage-rose, that perfect emblem of healthful rural life, is 

 the pride of the cottager ; the daily China rose, which cheats the 

 window of the crowded city of its gloom, is the joy of the daughter 

 of the humblest day laborer ; the delicate and odorous tea-rose, 

 fated to be admired and to languish in the drawing-room or the 

 boudoir, wins its place in the affections of those of most cultivated 

 and fastidious tastes ; while the moss-rose unites the admiration of 

 all classes, coming in as it does with its last added charm, to com- 

 plete the circle of perfection. 



Again, there is the infinity of associations which float like rich 

 incense about the rose, and that, after all, bind it most strongly to 

 us ; for they represent the accumulated wealth of joys and sorrows, 

 which has become so inseparably connected with it in the human 

 heart. 



" What were life without a rose ! " 



seems to many, doubtless, to be a most extravagant apostrophe ; 

 yet, if this single flower were to be struck out of existence, what a 

 chasm in the language of the heart would be found without it ! 

 What would the poets do ? They would find their finest emblem of 

 female loveliness stolen away. Listen, for instance, to old Beaumont 

 and Fletcher : 



"Of all flowers, 



Methinks a Rose is best ; 



It is the very emblem of a maid; 



For when the west wind courts her gently, 



How modestly she blows and paints the sun 



"With her chaste blushes ! "When the north wind comes near her, 



Rude and impatient, then, like chastity, 



She locks her beauties in her bud again, 



And leaves him to base briars." 



