three days more I may put forth my 

 hand and pluck the topmost bough in 

 its freshest green. These lilacs are 

 very aged, and have lost the luxuriant 

 foliage of their prime. The heart, 

 or the judgment, or the moral sense, 

 or the taste is dissatisfied with their 

 present aspect. Old age is not vener- 

 able when it embodies itself in lilacs, 

 rose-bushes, or any other ornamental 

 shrub ; it seems as if such plants, as 

 they grow only for beauty, ought to 

 flourish always in immortal youth, or 

 at least to die before their sad decrepi- 

 tude. Trees of beauty are trees of 

 Paradise and, therefore, not subject to 

 decay by their original nature, though 

 they have lost that precious birthright 

 by being transplanted to an earthly 

 soil. There is a kind of ludicrous 

 unfitness in the idea of a time-stricken 

 and grandfatherly lilac-bush." There 

 are still lilac-bushes growing and blos- 



A yss 



