94 A TOUR BOUND MY GARDEN. 



to afford a salutary shade to my violets during the heats of 

 summer. Well ! I must unveil the hitherto misunderstood 

 violet ; I love it, but I know that it is the sign of invincible 

 passions; I cannot be undeceived, since I know it, and I 

 love it as it is. 



All versifiers, all romance writers, poets of the shepherd's 

 pipe or the reed, are about to rise up in insurrection against 

 me, against me who have abeady taught them that they can- 

 not dance at all upon fern, and with great difficulty under 

 nut-trees, two things under pretext of which there have been 

 three thousand verses made, at least ! 



The violet is not modest ! 



Why did you say that the violet was modest ? because it 

 conceals itself under the grass. The violet does not conceal 

 itself under the grass, it is concealed there by nature. No 

 one is modest from being born in an humble and obscure 

 situation. 



Why don't you say that gold is modest ; gold which con- 

 ceals itself in the bowels of the earth, and which, even when 

 found, frequently disguises itself in some mineral which has 

 very little the air of being gold? 



Why don't you say diamonds are modest ; diamonds that 

 are concealed in the earth even more secretly than gold, and 

 which must be broken and out to bring out their splendour? 



Why don't you say pearls are modest; pearls which are 

 only found in the depths of the ocean? " 



But the violet! the violet is born in the grass, it is true;, 

 but what stratagems does it employ to get out of it ! besides 

 the colours which it affects, and which make it easily dis- 

 tinguished, does it not exhale that delicious perfume which 

 would reveal it even to a blind man? The modest violet, 

 indeed ! do you see to what it has attained? It has covered 

 the heads of the Church, the bishops and the archbishops, 

 with its livery ; black is the mourning of all the world, violet 

 has become the black of kings, and the mourning of the 

 purple — the modest violet ! 



But observe its allurements, its coquetries : here it is 

 white, there it is as double as a little rose, white, violet, grey, 

 and rose-coloured ! 



When the world thought proper to mix it up with politics, 



