fEIosjff. 125 
Moss ....Maternal Love. 
Moss is selected to be the emblem of maternal love, 
because, like that love, it glads the heart when the 
winter of adversity overtakes us, and when summer 
friends have deserted us. Rousseau, so long the prey 
of his own passions, and tormented by those of other 
men, soothed the latter years of his life by the study 
of nature. The Mosses, in particular, attracted his 
attention. It is these, he would say, that give a look 
of youth and freshness to the fields, at the moment 
when the flowers have gone to their graves. In winter 
the Mosses offer to the eye of the lover of nature their 
carpet of emerald green, their secret nuptials, and the 
charming mysteries of the urns and amphorae which 
enclose their posterity. It is asserted that without the 
Mosses, part of our globe would be uninhabitable. At 
the northern extremity of the earth, the Laplanders 
cover their subterranean abodes with Moss, and thus 
defy the longest and most terrible winters. Their nu¬ 
merous herds of reindeer have no other food, yet they 
supply their owners with delicious milk, nutritious 
flesh, and warm clothing; thus combining for the poor 
Laplander all the advantages that we derive from the 
horse, cow, and sheep. 
There is none 
In all this cold and hollow world, no fount 
Of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within 
A mother’s heart. 
Mrs. Hemans. 
11* 
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