Old Flower Favorites 
167 
It was a virtue to be comely in those days ; as 
it is indeed a virtue now ; and to the pious old 
herbalists it seemed an impossible thing that any cre- 
ation which was beautiful should not also be good. 
All flowers 
cannot be loved 
with equal 
warmth; it is 
possible to have 
a wholesome lik- 
ing for a flower, 
a wish to see it 
around you, 
which would 
make you plant 
it in your bor- 
ders and treat it 
well, but which 
would not be 
at all akin to 
love. Forothers 
you have a placid 
tolerance; others 
you esteem — 
good, virtuous, 
worthy crea- 
tures, but you 
cannot wa r m 
toward them. 
Sometimes they have been sung with passion 
by poets (Swinburne is always glowing over very 
unresponsive flower souls) and they have been 
Meadow Rue. 
