14 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
“ The sweet songs of the vineyards and the bees, 
Fell lullingly upon the soothed ear; 
And nightingales among the orange trees, 
Piping their gurgling notes so soft and clear, 
The old and the young came from the fields to hear 
Some gathered flowers by the meadow side— 
Of bright and beautiful there was no dearth— 
Or picked up daisies, which they strove to hide, 
Then threw at each other, gay with mirth, 
Or planted garlands for the nymphs who loved them from 
their birth.” 
Longus, Pastoral, Shepherd's Spring . 
V. THE BEAUTY OF IT. 
It seems as if nothing could be said under this head, 
because, in truth, there is so much to say. To get a good 
idea of the beauty of the grass, endeavour in imagination 
to form a picture of a world without it. It is precisely 
to the scenery of Nature what the Bible is to literature. 
You remember that in the dream, “ Eclipse of Eaith,” that 
the Bible had been obliterated, and every other book had 
thereat lost its value, and literature was at an end ? Take 
away this green ground colour on which Dame Nature 
works her embroidery patterns, and where would be the 
picturesque scarlet poppies or white daisies, or the 
grey of the chalk cliffs, or the golden bloom of a wilder¬ 
ness of buttercups ? Its chief service to beauty is as the 
garment of the earth. It watches night and day at all 
seasons of the year, “ in all places that the eye of heaven 
visits/* for spots on which to pitch new tents, to make 
the desert less hideous, fill up the groundwork of the 
grandest pictures, and give the promise of plenty on the 
flowery meadows where it lifts its silvery and purple 
