LAUREL. 
199 
The sad and musing poetess you cheer— 
At sight of thee Mem’ry’s electric wings 
Waft to her soul long, long forgotten things — 
Loved voices hush’d in death she seems to hear. 
ANON. 
THE LAUREL. 
The Greeks and Romans consecrated crowns of laurel 
to glory of every kind. With them they adorned the 
brows of warriors and of poets, of orators and philoso¬ 
phers, of fhe vestal virgin and the emperor. 
This beautiful shrub is found in abundance in the island 
of Delphos, where it grows naturally on the banks of the 
river Peneus. There, its aromatic and evergreen foliage 
is borne up by its aspiring branches to the height of the 
loftiest trees; and it is alleged that by a secret and pecu¬ 
liar power they avert the thunderbolt from the shores they 
beautify. The beautiful Daphne was the daughter of the 
river Peneus. She was beloved by Apollo ; but, preferring 
virtue to the love of the most eloquent of gods, she fled, 
fearing that the eloquence of his speech should lead her 
from the paths of virtue. Apollo pursued her; and as he 
caught her, the nymph invoked the aid of her father, and 
was changed into the laurel. 
In our free land, where letters are so extensively culti¬ 
vated, they who succeed in exciting popular favour meet 
