FLOEAL SYMBOLS. 
217 
“ If bliss be a frail and perishing flower, 
Born only to decay ; 
Oh! who—when it blooms but a single hour— 
Would fling its sweets away ?” 
Among the many chaste and poetical allegories which 
occur scattered up and down the Eastern literature, is 
the following:—"As this dark mould sends upwards, 
and out of its very heart, the rare Persian rose, so does 
hope grow out of evil: and the darker the evil the 
brighter the hope, as from a richer and fouler soil comes 
the more vigorous and larger flower.” There is another 
of this class, which conveys in a most elegant form a 
symbolical embodiment of the refining influences of the 
pure and the beautiful. " A traveller, in passing through 
a country in Persia, chanced to take into his hand a 
piece of clay which lay by the way-side, and to his 
surprise he found it to exhale the most delightful 
fragrance. ( Thou art but a poor piece of clay/ said he, 
* an unsightly, unattractive, poor piece of clay : yet how 
fragrant art thou! How refreshing ! I admire thee; I 
love thee; thou shalt be my companion; I will carry 
thee in my bosom. But whence hast thou this frag¬ 
rance ?* The clay replied, ‘ I have been dwelling with 
the rose V ” In another Persian legend, we are told that 
Sadi, the poet, when a slave, presented to his tyrant 
master a rose, accompanied with this pathetic appeal 
“ Do good to thy servant whilst thou hast the power, 
for the season of power is often as transient as the dura¬ 
tion of this beautiful flower.” This melted the heart of 
his lord, and the slave obtained his liberty. 
The well-known "Language of Blowers” was first 
