The Rose. 
35 
The Golden Rose which the Pope presents to contemporary 
sovereigns is an institution of the middle ages : the flower is 
considered an emblem of the mortality of the body, and the 
gold of which it is composed, of the immortality of the soul. 
There is an old mosaic, in the church of St. Susan at Rome, 
in which Charlemagne is represented kneeling, and receiving 
from St. Peter a standard covered with roses. 
There are numerous traditions of the Catholic Church with 
which “ the flower of flowers ” is associated. Marullus tells a 
story of a holy virgin named Dorothea, who suffered martyr¬ 
dom in Caesarea, under the government of Fabricius, and who 
converted to Christianity a scribe named Theophilus, by send¬ 
ing him, in the winter-time, some roses out of Paradise. 
It has already been shown that the rose was occasionally 
used as typical of sorrowful feelings, and the Greeks, who 
realized all their ideals, not only dedicated it to Venus as an 
emblem of love and beauty, and to Aurora as an emblem of 
youth, but also to Cupid as an emblem of fugacity and danger, 
from the fleeting nature of its charms and the wounds inflicted 
by its thorns. 
In many countries the rose seems to be the flower most 
frequently connected with the death of youths and children. 
“ In Poland,” says Phillips, “they cover the coffins of children 
with roses; and when the funeral passes the streets, a multitude 
of these flowers are thrown from the windows.” 
Mrs. Edward Thomas, in some expressive lines upon the 
death of a child, alluding to a singular custom observed by 
the Mexicans, says, 
* 1 They wreathe the very thought of death with flowers, 
And make his altar fair as marriage shine; ” 
in a foot-note subjoining these particulars : “At the funeral of 
a child in Acapulco, Mexico, the body was dressed magnifi¬ 
cently, crowned with roses, and the table on which it was laid 
was covered with flowers. The table was carried through the 
streets with the child on it; three or four men and boys walked 
in front firing rockets ; and the military band followed, playing 
the gayest music. Regarding the death of children as merely 
their translation to an angelic existence, such an event amongst 
these people is an occasion of joy rather than mourning.” 
3—2 
