XXXI 



" the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where 

 it comes and goes like the warbling of music), than in 

 the hand ; therefore, nothing is more fit for that de- 

 light, than to know what be the flowers and plants 

 that do best perfume the air; the flower, which above 

 all others yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the 

 violet;* next to that is the musk rose, then the straw- 

 berry-leaves, dying with a most excellent cordial 

 smell ; then sweet briar, then wall-flowers, which are 



* So thought Sir W. Raleigh ; 



Sweet violets, love's paradise, that spread 



Your gracious odours .... 

 Upon the gentle wing of some calm-breathing wind, 

 That plays amidst the plain. 



The lines in Twelfth Night we all recollect : 



That strain again; it had a dying fall : 

 O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south 

 That breathes upon a bank of violets, 

 Stealing and giving odour. 



That these flowers were the most favourite ones of Shakspeare, 

 there can be little doubt Perditta fondly calls them 



sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes 



Or Cytherea's breath. 



When Petrarch first saw Laura : " elle avait une robe verte, sa co- 

 leur favorite, parsemee de violet tes, la plus humble des fleurs." 

 Childe Harold thus paints this flower : 



The sweetness of the violet's deep blue eyes 



(Kiss'd by the breath of heaven) seems colour'd by its skies. 



