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SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



grains, bathing and sparkKng in their own wine, that it 

 seems a pity to destroy so much beauty ; though we do 

 not long hesitate, particularly on a summer's day. 



Andrew Marvell, referring the beauties of a garden 

 to the benevolent Deity, by whom they were given to 

 mankind, says — 



He hangs in shades the orange bright. 

 Like golden lamps in a green night ; 

 And does in the pomegranate close 

 Jewels more rich than Ormus shows." 



Yet Thomson, comparing it with the palm, the cedar, 

 and the vine, mentions it with a comparative disrespect : 



^' Give me to drain the cocoa's milky bowl, 

 And from the palm to draw its freshening wine. 

 More bounteous far than all the frantic juice 

 Which Bacchus pours. Nor, on its slender twigs 

 Low-bending, be the full pomegranate scorned." 



There may, indeed, be reasons for scorning, or rather 

 for shunning tliis fine fruit, when we consider that it is 

 one of the fair temptations of the garden of Pluto. The 

 reader will remember the disappointment of Ceres, who 

 after long search of her lost daughter Proserpine, having 

 learned that she had been conveyed by Pluto to the 

 shores of Styx, hastens to implore aid of Jove, the father 

 of Proserpine, who tells her that 



On one condition she may yet elude 



Her spouse, her lips must ne'er have tasted food; 



So will the fates." 



Ceres flies eagerly to recover her child, when Asca- 

 laphus, a mischievous prying Acheronian, betrays the 



