170 
BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
friend; and now, too feeble for thy office of cleanliness, 
hint to us of the old Homan pageant, when the noblesse 
of Home assembled, and the officers swept the hall with 
a green broom affixed to a sturdy broomstick. That 
was the honour paid by Homan patricians to intellect, 
energy, and virtue, which, however humble in their 
origin, had an equal chance with wealth and ancestral 
title in sharing the offices and honours of the state. The 
broom was as conscious of its dignity as the newly-elected 
councillors just lifted from the ranks of the people ; and 
the moment its green and flowerless branches touched 
the floor of the assembly, it broke into golden blossoms, 
a mute symbol of the fertility of virtue.^ Hail to thee ! 
for all the legends of old Time thou bringest us, from 
the state processions of Rome down to the hanging of a 
broom at the door of a Russian maiden pining for a 
lover. The broomstick was the chosen Pegasus of the 
midnight hags, when, gliding like bats through the 
midnight, they laid plots and counterplots to involve 
poor human nature in the sufferings of superstition :— 
“Do not strange matrons mount on high, 
And switch their broomsticks through the sky,— 
Ride post o’er hille, and woods, and seas, 
From Thule to the Hesperides .* f 
Yerily they do; but they are only the embodied sins 
of men's consciences, which, have taken shape and come 
* This story is related by Marcellinus Ammianus. The custom 
of publicly sweeping the hall on occasion of those assemblies was 
maintained for a L ng period. The verbena and sagmina were 
carried by the Roman fetiales instead of the caduceus, as emblems 
of peace. 
+ Somerville, “ Epistle to Allan Ramsay 
