SENSITIVE PLANT. 
171 
The same writer thus characterizes the general 
habits of this plant: 
Weak, with nice sense, the chaste Mimosa stands, 
From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands: 
Oft as light clouds pass o’er the summer’s glade, 
Alarm’d she trembles at the moving shade, 
And feels, alive through all her tender form, 
The whisper’d murmurs of the gathering storm; 
Shuts her sweet eyelids to approaching night, 
And hails with freshen’d charms the rosy light. 
Her susceptibility, however, even in the 
highest degree of excitement, never instigates 
her to injure the indiscreet hand which touches 
her, but only to draw back from it. The Sen¬ 
sitive Plant strives neither to punish nor to re¬ 
venge herself. Like those modest females who 
never think of arming themselves with severity, 
she uses not her thorny bristles; she merely 
shrinks from the approach of the intruder. The 
violet is the emblem of that retiring modesty 
which proceeds from reflection; but the Sen¬ 
sitive Plant is a perfect image of innocence and 
virgin modesty. She suspects no harm, because 
she knows none, and shews herself without mis¬ 
trust : but as soon as she is gazed at too closely, 
