164 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



presage of the good odour that would some 

 day scatter his poetry. 



Painters represent Saint Dorothy holding 

 a nosegay of roses, because it is told in her 

 life that an angel gave her a bunch of roses ; 

 and a prodigy is related of Saint Louis, a 

 bishop, who was nephew to Louis the Ninth 

 of France. It is pretended that a rose was 

 seen to come out of his mouth after his 

 death. 



In the abbey of Saint Croix, at Poictiers, 

 they show a pillar that was raised to comme- 

 morate a pretended miracle, and where they 

 tell you a rose-tree in full blossom sprung 

 out of the grave of a young man, on the day 

 after his interment. It is truly shocking that 

 the teachers of Christianity should counte- 

 nance such absurd superstitions. We could 

 enumerate many others coupled with the 

 rose ; but we are more anxious to give space 

 for an account of the agreeable use to which 

 this flower was put by Saint Medard, who 

 about the year 530, instituted the most 

 affecting prize that piety has ever offered to 

 virtue. It was a crown of roses for that vil- 

 lager's daughter who was the most modest, 

 most obedient to her parents, and the most 

 discreet. The first rose-tree was his own 

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