THE BEAUTIES OF APRIL AND MAY. 87 



of sloth ? Who would be dissolved in senseless slum- 

 bers, while so many breathing sweets invite him to a 

 feast of fragrancy — especially considering that the 

 advancing day will exhale the volatile dainties ? A 

 fugitive treat they are, prepared only for the wakeful 

 and industrious- Whereas, when the sluggard lifts 

 his heavy eyes, the flowers will droop, their fine 

 sweets be dissipated, and instead of this refreshing 

 humidity, the air will become a kind of liquid fire. 



With this very motive, heightened by a representa- 

 tion of the most charming pieces of morning scenery, 

 the parent of mankind awakes his lovely consort. 

 There is such a delicacy in the choice, and so much 

 life in the description of these rural images, that I 

 cannot excuse myself without repeating the whole 

 passage. Whisper it, some friendly genius, in the ear 

 of every one, who is now sunk in sleep, and lost to all 

 these refined gratifications f 



" Awake f the morning shines, and the fresh field 

 Calls you : ye lose the prime, to mark how spring 

 The tended plants, how blows the citron grove ; 

 What drops the myrrh, and what the balmy reed ; 

 How Nature paints her colour, how the bee 

 Sits on the bloom, extracting liquid sweets." 



How delightful is this fragrance ! It is distributed 

 in the nicest proportion ; neither so strong as to op- 

 press the organs, nor so faint as to elude them. We 

 are soon cloyed at a sumptuous banquet; but this 

 pleasure never loses its poignancy, never palls the 

 appetite. Here luxury itself is innocent ; or rather 



