FLOWERS OF THOUGHT. 
77 
thunder and darkness, in that fathomless and shore¬ 
less ocean of molten flames. Mysterious flower! 
we know not at what hallowed font thou wert first 
named,—whether thou wert christened in smiles or 
tears,—or amid the maimed rites of some heart¬ 
breaking ceremony, wert first named the everlasting 
flower of undying thought. 
The White Rose has long been considered as 
sacred to Silence : over whatever company it was 
suspended, no secrets were ever revealed, for it 
hung only above the festal board of sworn friend¬ 
ship. No matter how deep they might drink, or 
how long the wine-cup might circulate round the 
table, so long as the White Rose hung over their 
heads, every secret was considered inviolable; no 
matter how trivial, or how important the trust, 
beneath that flower it was never betrayed, for 
around it was written the sentence— 
“ HE WHO DOTH SECRETS REVEAL 
BENEATH MT ROOF SHALL NEVER LIVE.”* 
* Such is the emblem given to the White Rose, in an old work 
entitled the “Bible Herbal,” and published at the close of the 
sixteenth century—while Shakspere himself was living. 
