THE MICHAELMAS VAISY 
223 
CHAPTER XXV. 
Michaelmas -Daisy — Autumn — Farewell Summer — Sea-side 
Daisy — Compound Flowers — Verses 07 t Autumn 
Flowers. 
The windflower and the violet, they perished long ago, 
And the briar-rose and the orchis died amid the summer’s 
glow; 
But on the hills the golden-rod, and the aster in the wood, 
And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty 
stood, 
Till fell the frost from the clear cold heaven, as falls the 
plague on men. 
And the brightness of their smile was gone from upland 
glade and glen. 
— Bryant. 
It is with the different months of the year as with the 
varieties of human character — each has its peculiar excel- 
lence. It is, too, a happy tendency in the human mind 
which 1 ads us to think of each season as it comes as the 
best of them all. There are the hopeful and the gay, and 
the grave and the pensive; and who, as these characters 
pass in review before his mind, could decide which, if it 
were to become universal, he would choose, either for the 
season or the companion? Even the daisied turf and 
smiling sky of June would be less beautiful to us if they 
were perpetual ; and though we regret the falling-off of 
summer flowers, as they lay them down to die, yet the 
winter too will bring his own charms, and even a few hardy 
blossoms will form a garland for “his thin grey hairs.” 
Spring-time seems peculiarly congenial to the feelings 
of the young and gay. The birds pour out the overflow- 
