290 FOFULAR TALES OF FLOWERS 
heart was, even though it fondly loved, sent her down 
upon the earth as a comforter, and she took up her abode 
within the blue-belled flowers of the wild. She gathered 
together all the floating affections of true hearts, and 
formed for them many a sweet habitation, which they had 
sighed for in vain, to dwell in. She erected for them a 
new and pleasant home in the heart — she assembled round 
them a thousand household virtues — and what the eye 
had before sought for abroad in vain, it found within; it 
became the resting-place of Love, and there alone was 
true ben”ty to be found.” 
Man no longer sighed for the Paradise he had lost; 
for Constancy led him by the hand and brought him back, 
and he sat enthroned amid a lovelier Eden in the beating 
heart of woman. 
Abroad he saw her image everywhere reflected. The 
Water-Lily sleeping on the lake mirrored back the purity 
in which he now dwelt; all around beside her might move, 
but Constancy had anchored her true roots within the 
heart — an hundred contending waves might wash over 
the spotless snow of her blossoms, but she still rose tri- 
umphant, whiter and purer from the contest; for the 
washing of every ripple but laid bare some hidden virtue, 
and from every assault she won back some lost affection. 
And when Love and Constancy set out to wander hand 
in hand through the world, with Humility and Affection- 
ate Remembrance for their attendants, within was found 
that Purity of Heart which ever ensureth devoted attach- 
ment ; it was then that they made a happy home wherever 
they alighted, and carried with them a sweet sunshine, 
which threw its brightness around the shadiest places. 
In old primeval forests they sometimes dwelt, far away 
f-rom the fever and the fret of busy cities — they found a 
shelter beneath the yellow Broom, and a couch amid 
the azure Bells of flowers. Where huge sandy deserts 
stretched for miles away, they pitched their tent; and in 
the deep caverns of majestic mountains Love and Con- 
stancy took up their abode. They tended their cattle 
together on vast plains, and followed summer over many 
a high hill and outstretched valley, sojourning together 
in rude huts, whose branched walls and leafy roofs bore 
the first rough tracings of the primitive home of man. 
