Flowers and Gardens 



which we look upon the fading Snowdrop 

 so different from that with which we 

 contemplate ruins and other memorials 

 of the past? Because these tell us of 

 the unknown and visionary, and tend to 

 make it real, or of that well-nigh for- 

 gotten past which we love to recall ; 

 whilst the withered or unseasonable flower 

 is connected with the immediate past, or 

 is but the dregs of a beauty of which we 

 have drunk our fill. And it is principally 

 the early flowers which weary us when 

 past their season, because they carry us 

 back to the less perfect time. How 

 miserable it is on some cold bleak upland 

 to meet with Sloe blossom in May ! It 

 seems to recall us to a world which we 

 rejoiced at having left behind. It is the 

 same, though in a less degree, with Haw- 

 thorn at the end of June. The vegetation 

 of May is supremely lovely, and we could 

 well enjoy it longer, but this stray blossom 

 gives us only such a taste, such a faint re- 

 minder, of that loveliness, that the tedium 

 of the past is uppermost, and we are 

 wearied more than pleased. But we 

 never grow tired of the last lingering 

 flowers of summer, for there are no new- 

 comers to eclipse them, and, besides, they 

 are clothed with the last sad splendour 



