52 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
“ Love in Idleness ” is another name it assumes, and 
under that title it is immortalised by Shakspeare in that 
exquisite passage in the “ Midsummer Night’s Dream,” 
familiar to every reader. Its being held sacred to St. 
Valentine may have obtained for it this distinction. 
But though “ the pretie pawnee,” as Chaucer calls 
this flower, is dear to most, both on account of its 
beauty and “ gentle names,” it has been mournfully, nay, 
almost ungraciously, apostrophised by an anonymous 
writer, who, it is hoped, may, at “ no distant date, le- 
cover the heartsease , the loss of which he thus so 
feelingly deplores: — 
“ I used to love thee, simple flower, 
To love thee dearly as a boy ; 
For thou didst seem, in childhood’s hour, 
The smiling type of childhood’s joy. 
“ But now thou only mock’st my grief 
By waking thoughts of pleasures fled ; 
Give me—give me the wither’d leaf 
That falls on Autumn’s bosom dead. 
“ For that ne’er tells of what has been, 
But warns me what I soon shall be ; 
It looks not back on pleasure’s scene, 
But points unto futurity. 
