194 
LILAC. 
Some scattering pot-herbs here and there he found, 
Which, cultivated with his daily care, 
And bruised with vervain, were his daily fare. 
DRYDEN. 
THE LILAC. 
The lilac is consecrated to the first emotion of love, 
because nothing is more delightful than the sensations it 
produces by its first appearance on the return of spring. 
The freshness of its verdure, the pliancy of its tender 
branches, the abundance of its flowers, — their beauty, 
though brief and transient, — their delicate and varied 
colours;—all their qualities summon up those sweet emo¬ 
tions which enrich beauty, and impart to youth a grace 
divine. 
Albano was unable to blend, upon the palette which love 
had confided to him, colours sufficiently soft and delicate 
to convey the peculiarly beautiful tints which adorn the 
human face in early youth; 
The velvet down that spreads the cheek; 
Van Spaendock himself laid down his pencil in despair 
before a bunch of lilac. Nature seems to have aimed to 
produce massy bunches of these flowers, every part of 
which should astonish by its delicacy and its variety. The 
gradation of colour, from the purple bud to the almost 
colourless flowers, is the least charm of these beautiful 
